William Stanley Merwin Poems

Why did he promise me
that we would build ourselves
an ark all by ourselves
out in back of the house
...

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 traveller
...

My friends without shields walk on the target

It is late the windows are breaking
...

The cold slope is standing in darkness
But the south of the trees is dry to the touch

The heavy limbs climb into the moonlight bearing feathers
...

Naturally it is night.
Under the overturned lute with its
One string I am going my way
Which has a strange sound.
...

Matches among other things that were not allowed
never would be
lying high in a cool blue box
that opened in other hands and there they all were
...

It is March and black dust falls out of the books
Soon I will be gone
The tall spirit who lodged here has
Left already
...

Gray whale
Now that we are sinding you to The End
That great god
Tell him
...

How long ago the day is
when at last I look at it
with the time it has taken
to be there still in it
...

In a dream I returned to the river of bees
Five orange trees by the bridge and
Beside two mills my house
Into whose courtyard a blind man followed
...