W.S. Merwin: Last Year, Next Year

I've been reading different poets lately, but found nothing I'm moved to share here. So I picked Present Company (2007) from my bookshelf, poetry by W.S. Merwin--a favorite now, you know. I found these two poems, side by side, but where else would they be? As we look back on this year, fast receding, and to a new year fast apporaching--with promise, or hope, we pray--these two poems offer me sensitive, resonant reflections for this time. Perhaps they will resonate with you, too.


To the Parting Year

So you are leaving everything

the way it is

taking only your day with you

already you are out of reach

you do not know us or hear us

you scarcely remember us

already we cannot imagine

where you are

what we remember of love is starlight


To the New Year

With what stillness at last

you apear 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