Modern poetry, for me, began not in English at all but in Spanish, in the poems of Lorca. W. S. Merwin More Quotes by W. S. Merwin More Quotes From W. S. Merwin Separation Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. W. S. Merwin missing-someonemissing-youi-miss-you From what we cannot hold the stars are made. W. S. Merwin starsmade Your absence has gone through me W. S. Merwin goneabsencemissing-you Any work of art makes one very simple demand on anyone who genuinely wants to get in touch with it. And that is to stop. You've got to stop what you're doing, what you're thinking, and what you're expecting and just be there for the poem for however long it takes. W. S. Merwin simpleartthinking Obviously a garden is not the wilderness but an assembly of shapes, most of them living, that owes some share of its composition, it’s appearance, to human design and effort, human conventions and convenience, and the human pursuit of that elusive, indefinable harmony that we call beauty. It has a life of its own, an intricate, willful, secret life, as any gardener knows. It is only the humans in it who think of it as a garden. But a garden is a relationship, which is one of the countless reasons why it is never finished. W. S. Merwin designgardenthinking On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree W. S. Merwin wanttreeworld We are asleep with compasses in our hands. W. S. Merwin compasshands I think there's a kind of desperate hope built into poetry that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time. W. S. Merwin tryingworldthinking I say to my breath once again, little breath come from in front of me, go away behind me, row me quietly now, as far as you can, for I am an abyss that I am trying to cross. W. S. Merwin going-awaylittlestrying We are not born to survive. Only to live. W. S. Merwin live-lifebornlife Poetry is a way of looking at the world for the first time. W. S. Merwin wayworldart What you remember saves you. W. S. Merwin remember The story of each stone leads back to a mountain. W. S. Merwin mountainstonesstories Now all my teachers are dead except silence. W. S. Merwin silenceteacher What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too. W. S. Merwin hopefulattitudebelieve Of course there is nothing the matter with the stars It is my emptiness among them While they drift farther away in the invisible morning W. S. Merwin numbnessstarsmorning When a poem is really finished, you can't change anything. You can't move words around. You can't say, 'In other words, you mean.' No, that's not it. There are no other words in which you mean it. This is it. W. S. Merwin cant-changemeanmoving Laughter was the shape the darkness took around the first appearance of the light. W. S. Merwin laughterlightdarkness I have with me all that I do not knowI have lost none of it. W. S. Merwin knowslost I needed my mistakes in their order to get me here W. S. Merwin my-mistakesmistakeorder
