M A Y 1 9 9 9 ![]() TERMby W. S. Merwin | |||||||||||||
![]() (For help, see a note about the audio.) Also by W. S. Merwin: Unknown Bird (1999) Any Time (1999) Before the Flood (1998) Shore Birds (1998) Three Poems (1997) Green Fields (1995) Three French Poems (1994) From Atlantic Unbound: Swimming Up into Poetry, by Peter Davison (August 28, 1997) The Atlantic's poetry editor reflects on the career of W. S. Merwin. Go to: An Audible Anthology Poetry Pages |
At the last minute a word is waiting not heard that way before and not to be repeated or ever be remembered one that always had been a household word used in speaking of the ordinary everyday recurrences of living not newly chosen or long considered or a matter for comment afterward who would ever have thought it was the one saying itself from the beginning through all its uses and circumstances to utter at last that meaning of its own for which it had long been the only word though it seems now that any word would do W. S. Merwin has won many awards for his poetry, including the 1998 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. His The Folding Cliffs, an epic poem, was published last year. Copyright © 1999 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; May 1999; Term; Volume 283, No. 5; page 88. |
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