#wsmerwin

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Todd Hito

* * * *

A LETTER TO SU TUNG-P'O

Almost a thousand years later I am asking the same questions you did... I do not know any more now than you did then about what you were asking as I sit at night above the hushed valley thinking of you on your river that one bright sheet of moonlight in the dream of the waterbirds and I hear the silence after your questions how old are the questions tonight"

WS Merwin 

[alive on all channels]

[thesefevereddays]

To the New Year

by W.S. Merwin

With what stillness at last

you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

[bramwellbern]

[mtaartsdesign]

Closing out summer with this Poetry In Motion poem by W.S. Merwin with artwork by Mickalene Thomas from her installation at the 53rd Street (R ) station in Brooklyn .

[thevulgar]

PROVISION | WS Merwin

All morning with dry instruments The field repeats the sound Of rain From memory And in the wall The dead increase their invisible honey It is August The flocks are beginning to form I will take with me the emptiness of my hands What you do not have you find everywhere

[believethebird]

For the Anniversary of My Death

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day When the last fires will wave to me And the silence will set out Tireless traveler Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer Find myself in life as in a strange garment Surprised at the earth And the love of one woman And the shamelessness of men As today writing after three days of rain Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease And bowing not knowing to what

~ W.S. Merwin (September 30, 1927 - March 15, 2019)

[paperingwalls]

youth by w.s. merwin

[expeditionpress]

“Please one more / kiss in the kitchen / before we turn the lights off” – W.S. Merwin’s latest poem, “Wish,” presented here in his own handwriting. Merwin wrote this poem just after his wife died last year. It's been haunting me for months and I'm so glad to offer a small edition of it. I typeset the poem and printed it on the back – couldn't find a way to improve upon the feeling in Merwin's hand, so I made a plate direct from the source. Many thanks to @mlwiegers for lighting the way on this one. And if you haven't picked up THE ESSENTIAL W.S. MERWIN @copper_canyon_press just released, you really ought to. I am finding so much there I had no idea I needed to find. #wish #wsmerwin #letterpress #typography #handwriting #poetry