Audio: Hear W. S. Merwin read this poem (1:09) Vehicles (1994) The Speed of Light (1994) End of a Day (1994) Green Fields (1995) Another River (1997) Echoing Light (1997) Remembering (1997) Shore Birds (1998) Before the Flood (1998) Unknown Bird (1999) Any Time (1999) Term (1999) Also see: Swimming Up Into Poetry The Atlantic's longtime poetry editor reflects on the career of W. S. Merwin, whose long association with the magazine spans great distances of geography and art (August 1997) |
Echoing Light (1997)
When I was beginning to read I imagined
that bridges had something to do with birds
and with what seemed to be cages but I knew
that they were not cages it must have been autumn
with the dusty light flashing from the streetcar wires
and those orange places on fire in the pictures
and now indeed it is autumn the clear
days not far from the sea with a small wind nosing
over dry grass that yesterday was green
the empty corn standing trembling and a down
of ghost flowers veiling the ignored fields
and everywhere the colors I cannot take
my eyes from all of them red even the wide streams
red it is the season of migrants
flying at night feeling the turning earth
beneath them and I woke in the city hearing
the call notes of the plover then again and
again before I slept and here far downriver
flocking together echoing close to the shore
the longest bridges have opened their slender wings
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