
Purchase
Copper Canyon Press
September 2008
On Sale: September 1, 2008
120 pages ISBN: 1556592841 EAN: 9781556592843 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Featured on NPR's "Fresh Air" and "The NewsHour with Jim
Lehrer" on PBS. Honored as one of the "Best Books of the Year" from
Publishers Weekly. “Merwin is one of the great poets of our age.”—Los Angeles
Times Book Review "[Merwin's] best book in a decade—and one of the best
outright... The poems... feel fresh and awake with a
simplicity that can only be called wisdom." —Publishers
Weekly "Merwin's gentle wisdom and attentiveness to the world are
alive as ever. These deeply reflective meditations move
through light and darkness, old love and turning seasons to
probe the core of human existence." —Orion The nuanced mysteries of light, darkness, presence, and
memory are central themes in W.S. Merwin’s new book of
poems. “I have only what I remember,” Merwin admits, and
his memories are focused and profound—the distinct
qualities of autumn light, a conversation with a boyhood
teacher, well-cultivated loves, and “our long evenings and
astonishment.” In “Photographer,” Merwin presents the scene
where armloads of antique glass negatives are saved from a
dumpcart by “someone who understood.” In “Empty Lot,”
Merwin evokes a child lying in bed at night, listening to
the muffled dynamite blasts of coal mining near his home,
and we can’t help but ask: How shall we mine our lives? somewhere the Perseids are falling
toward us already at a speed that would
burn us alive if we could believe it
but in the stillness after the rain ends
nothing is to be heard but the drops falling
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