The Merwin Conservancy

Inspiring innovation in the arts and sciences by advancing the ideas of W.S. Merwin

The Merwin Conservancy

“Coming To The Morning” by W.S. Merwin

By

Photo: Thomas Hawk

COMING TO THE MORNING

You make me remember all of the elements
the sea remembering all of its waves

in each of the waves there was always a sky made of water
and an eye that looked once

there was the shape of one mountain
and a blood kinship with rain

and the air for touch and for the tongue
at the speed of light

in which the world is made
from a single ear

and our ears
are formed of the sea as we listen

–W.S. Merwin, from his book The Rain in the Trees (1987, A.A. Knopf). Used by permission of the publishers.

Copyright © 1987 by W. S. Merwin.

To browse through our archive of previously posted Poems of the Week, click here.

To support the work of The Merwin Conservancy, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

Featured photo was taken by Thomas Hawk, and used under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC 2.0. The original image can be found here.

“The Wonder of the Imperfect” by W.S. Merwin

By

Larry Cameron - W.S. Merwin Rakes and Brooms
Photo by Larry Cameron

THE WONDER OF THE IMPERFECT

Nothing that I do is finished
so I keep returning to it
lured by the notion that I long
to see the whole of it at last
completed and estranged from me

but no the unfinished is what
I return to as it leads me on
I am made whole by what has just
escaped me as it always does
I am made of incompleteness
the words are not there in words

oh gossamer gossamer breath
moment daylight life untouchable
by no name with no beginning

what do we think we recognize

– W.S. Merwin, from The Moon Before Morning (2014, Copper Canyon Press). Used by permission of the publishers.

Copyright © 2014 by W. S. Merwin.

“Lights Out” by W.S. Merwin

By

Photo by Karen Bouris

LIGHTS OUT

 

The old grieving autumn goes on calling to its summer
the valley is calling to other valleys beyond the ridge
each star is roaring alone into darkness
there is not a sound in the whole night

 

– W.S. Merwin, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Shadow of Sirius (2008, Copper Canyon Press). Used by permission of the publishers.

Copyright © 2008 by W. S. Merwin.

To browse through our archive of previously posted Poems of the Week, click here.

To support the preservation of W.S. Merwin’s legacy and our efforts to preserve his living legacy for future generations, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to The Merwin Conservancy.

“After the Alphabets” by W.S. Merwin

By

Hawaiian Damselfly - Photo courtesy the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Hawaiian Damselfly – Photo courtesy the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

AFTER THE ALPHABETS

I am trying to decipher the language of insects
they are the tongues of the future
their vocabularies describe buildings as food
they can depict dark water and the veins of trees
they can convey what they do not know
and what is known at a distance
and what nobody knows
they have terms for making music with the legs
they can recount changing in a sleep like death
they can sing with wings
the speakers are their own meaning in a grammar without horizons
they are wholly articulate
they are never important they are everything

 

— W.S. Merwin, from his 1988 book The Rain in the Trees.  Copyright © 1988 by W. S. Merwin. Used with permission of the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

To browse through our archive of previously posted Poems of the Week, click here.

To support the preservation of W.S. Merwin’s legacy and our efforts to preserve his home and palm forest for future generations, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to The Merwin Conservancy.

Featured photo is of the Hawaiian Damselfly, Megalagrion pacificum, courtesy of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – Pacific Region.