Poems by William Stanley Merwin
December Night
... the south of the trees is dry to the touchThe heavy limbs climb into the moonlight bearing feathers ...
It Is March
... The thermometers out of the mouths of the corpsesAt a certain height ...
Whenever I Go There
... ginningIs brokenNo wonder the addresses are tornTo which I make my way eating the silence of animals ...
Vehicles
... because there was nobody left who could make them like that ...
Beggars And Kings
... and is sailing in search of them day and night ...
The Burnt Child
... fire after fire gone beforeI could hear the scratch and flare ...
Term
... who would ever have thought it was the one ...
The Ships Are Made Ready In Silence
... Though all shores but the first have been foreign, ...
The Nails
... The lightning has shown me the scars of the future ...
The Night of the Shirts
... to breathe in your shapes to carry your numbers ...
Bread
... searching somewhere in the light the true hunger ...
Sire
... Here comes The white-haired thistle seed stumbling past through the branches ...
Good People
... the meat counters the maimed children ...
To the New Year
... your first sunlight reaching down ...
Ballad of John Cable and Three Gentlemen
... “Cable, friend John, John Cable,&rdquo ...
