Vox Populi
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W.S. Merwin: Shore Birds
While I think of them they are growing rare
after the distances they have followed
all the way to the end for the first time
tracing a memory they did not have
until they set out to remember it
at an hour when all at once it was late
and newly silent and the white had turned
white around them then they rose in their choir
on a single note each of them alone
between the pull of the moon and the hummed
undertone of the earth below them
the glass curtains kept falling around them
as they flew in search of their place before
they were anywhere and storms winnowed them
they flew among the places with towers
and passed the tower lights where some vanished
with their long legs for wading in shadow
others were caught and stayed in the countries
of the nets and in the lands of lime twigs
some fastened and after the countries of
guns at first light fewer of them than I
remember would be here to recognize
the light of late summer when they found it
playing with darkness along the wet sand
From Migration: New and Selected Poems by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon, 2007). Included in Vox Populi for educational use only.
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Apart from being an exquisite observer of nature, life, emotions, and metaphor, he is also THE master of lineation — without using punctuation. I so admire that — but also know that I’ll never try doing the same, and kindly advise my students not to try it without having studied — in depth and for a long, long time — how W.S. Merwin excels at it. For SO many aspects of craft come together here, to make it so fluidly readable: syntax, cadence, line-breaks, concision, etc. etc. I so immensely admire his work. And will **never attempt** to write a poem without the blessed help of punctuation!
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Yes, Merwin is a mystic as well as a master craftsman and linguist. There will never be another poet like him.
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Merwin is one of my favorite poets, he touches on every fiber of life
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Oh, yes. Merwin found a place of pure lyricism!
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Lovely. Must read more Merwin
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