to waiting

.

.

You spend so much of your time

expecting to become

someone else

always someone 

who will be different 

someone to whom a moment

whatever moment it may be 

at last has come

and who has been

met and transformed

into no longer being you

and so has forgotten you

.

meanwhile in your life

you hardly notice

the world around you

lights changing

sirens dying along the buildings

your eyes intent

on a sight you do not see yet

not yet there

as long as you

are only yourself

.

with whom as you

recall you were

never happy

to be left alone for long

.

W.S. Merwin
from Present Company
art by Picasso

.

to the happy few

.

.

Do you know who you are

.

O you forever listed

under some other heading

when you are listed at all

.

You whose addresses

when you have them 

are never sold except

for another reason

something else that is

supposed to identify you

.

who carry no card

stating that you are -

what would it say you were

to someone turning it over

looking perhaps for

a date or for

anything to go by

.

you with no secret handshake

no proof of membership

no way to prove such a thing

even to yourselves

.

you without a word

of explanation

and only yourselves

as evidence

.

~ W.S. Merwin

from Present Company

photo by edmund teske

.

Youth of Grass

.

Yesterday in the hushed white sunlight 

down along the meadows by the river

through all the bright hours they cut the first hay

of this year to leave it tossed in long rows

leading into the twilight and long evening

while thunderheads grumbled from the horizon

and now the whole valley and the slopes around it 

that look down to the sky in the river

are fragrant with hay as this night comes in

and the owl cries across the new spaces

to the mice suddenly missing their sky

and so the youth of this spring all at once is over 

it has come upon us again taking us

once more by surprise just as we began

to believe that those fields would always be green

.

~ W.S. Merwin

.

.

Falling

.

Long before daybreak

none of the birds yet awake

rain comes down with the sound

of a huge wind rushing

through the valley trees

it comes down around us

all at the same time

and beyond it there is nothing

it falls without hearing itself

without knowing

there is anyone here 

without seeing where it is

or where it is going

like a moment of great

happiness in our own

that we cannot remember

coasting with the lights off

.

~ W.S. Merwin
from "The Shadow of Sirius"

art by Bertha Lum

.

One of the Butterflies

.

.

The trouble with pleasure is the timing

it can overtake me without warning

and be gone before I know it is here

it can stand facing me unrecognized

while I am remembering somewhere else

in another age or someone not seen

for years and never to be seen again

in this world and it seems that I cherish

only now a joy I was not aware of

when it was here although it remains

out of reach and will not be caught or named

or called back and if I could make it stay

as I want to it would turn into pain

.

W.S. Merwin

from: The Shadow of Sirius

.

Falling

.

.

Long before daybreak

none of the birds awake

rain comes down with the sound

of a huge wind rushing

through the valley trees

it comes down around us

all at the same time

and beyond it there is nothing

it falls without hearing itself

without knowing

there is anyone here

without seeing where it is

or where it is going

like a moment of great 

happiness of our own

that we cannot remember

coasting with the lights off

.

W.S. Merwin

.

a momentary creed

I believe in the ordinary day

that is here at this moment and is me

I do not see it going its own way

but I never saw how it came to me

It extends beyond whatever I may

think I know and all that is real to me

it is the present that it bears away

where has it gone when it has gone from me

there is no place I know outside today

except for the unknown all around me

the only presence that appears to stay 

everything that I call mine it lent me

even the way that I believe the day

for as long as it is here and is me

~ W.S. Merwin

from:  The Shadow of Sirius

.

until everything is continuous and whole again

.

.

First, forget what time it is for an hour.

Do it regularly every day.

Then forget what day of the week it is,

and do this regularly in company for a week.

Then forget what country you are in,

and practice doing it in company for a week,

and then do them together for a week

with as few breaks as possible.

Follow these by forgetting how to add

or to subtract.

It makes no difference.

You can change them around after a week.

Both will later help you to forget how to count.

.

Forget how to count,

starting with your own age,

starting with how to count backwards,

starting with even numbers,

with roman numerals,

starting with fractions,

with the old calendar,

going on to the alphabet,

forgetting it all until everything

is continuous and whole again.

.

~  W. S. Merwin

.