WS Merwin ...."one of the butterflies" from the Shadow of Sirius

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, .



The broadside which I took for him to sign from Peter Kock's press  associated with the Codex Foundation in Berkeley held the following poem, "Good Night" which when Merwin  told me it was for his old black dog...I replied to  him I always teach my students it is only a poem if there are at least three levels of meaning, to which he replied, "The Arabs have four meanings in each poem."

Good Night

Sleep softly my old love
my beauty in the dark
night is a dream we have
as you know as you know

night is a dream you know
an old love in the dark
around you as you go
without end as you know

in the night where you go
sleep softly my old love
without end in the dark
in the love that you know
---W.S. Merwin


this book is a farewell...

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