RIP WS Merwin

[basquebromance]

masterful poet, deep environmentalist, and a man connected to his planet like few others

"On the last day of the world
I would want to plant a tree"

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Wait...on the last day of the world, before it ends forever...you would want to plant a tree that will never grow...yeah..uh

 

[basquebromance]

Wait...on the last day of the world, before it ends forever...you would want to plant a tree that will never grow...yeah..uh

it's called art! ARTY ART ART!

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Wait...on the last day of the world, before it ends forever...you would want to plant a tree that will never grow...yeah..uh

it's called art! ARTY ART ART!

I think on the last day of the world, I would want a spaceship.

 

[basquebromance]

He was my favorite Neruda translator

 

[basquebromance]

WS Merwin wrote in a lyric register to capture the epic brutality and organized violence of the 20th century

His poems are promontories from which can be seen in one panoramic view the catastrophic storm that sweeps together the Nixon era with the Trump era.

Merwin’s poetry found its visionary calling in the late 1960s and 1970s as an indictment of US militarism.

"Oh come back we were watching all the time
With the delight choking us and the piled
Grief scrambling like guilt to leave us
At the sight of you
Looking well
And besides our questions our news
All of it paralyzed until you were gone"

his poem “For the Anniversary of My Death,” begins by shivering at the awareness that “Every year without knowing it I have passed that day” when he will die.

His attempts to find a poetry adequate to the position of history’s losers, excluded from the official narratives of events, extends to the planet and its creatures as well as to the injured companies of the human dead. In his poem “In Autumn,” for example:

"The extinct animals are still looking for home
Their eyes full of cotton

Now they will
Never arrive

The stars are like that"

These animals’ seeing eyes have been replaced by a material used to stop bleeding wounds; they are like the dead stars from which light still emanates. It is as terrifying an image for this age of the sixth extinction as might be found.

Merwin's voice, restrained as it is, doesn’t take over and drown out yours. Instead, the very power of Merwin’s poetry is that it passes on its power to its readers, in the same way that it amplifies the voices of the dead and silent.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

"On the last day of the world
I would want to cut down a tree"

 

[basquebromance]

"On the last day of the world
I would want to cut down a tree"

YOU MAKE ME ANGRY!

 

[basquebromance]

"All through my wild days, my mad existence

I kept my promise

Don't keep your distance"

 

[Biff_Poindexter]

Wait...on the last day of the world, before it ends forever...you would want to plant a tree that will never grow...yeah..uh

Why would he plant a tree when he can frack something and get one last bit of profit before he dies....dummy

 

[basquebromance]

Thursday is #WorldPoetryDay, a chance to celebrate the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind. "When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, we are the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it." -- Taken from "A Brave and Startling Truth", written by Maya Angelou to mark the 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995.

 

[basquebromance]

If I could screen, I would; without wounds I could use mics on speakers I would if I could to be heard but in my silence my voice was louder than all...

 

[Dekster]

masterful poet, deep environmentalist, and a man connected to his planet like few others

"On the last day of the world
I would want to plant a tree"

An ironic position by someone who wrote poetry considering how many trees have been lost to publish his stuff.

 

[skye]

never heard of this person ...

RIP

 

[Sunni Man]

He was my favorite Neruda translator

It figures, Neruda was an ardent life long communist. ..

 

[skye]

he was a Neruda translator?

Amazing! Bless him

 

[skye]

He was my favorite Neruda translator

It figures, Neruda was an ardent life long communist. ..

His poetry was amazing.....Nobel Prize and everything

he had a way with words...Pablo had

 

[basquebromance]

"i dont pay attention to the world ending, it ended many times for me, and began again in the morning"

 

[basquebromance]

in case you wondered
poetry is odd
Haikus are absurd
#NationalHaikuDay

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

in case you wondered
poetry is odd
Haikus are absurd
#NationalHaikuDay

I think you meant to say...

In case you wondered
Haiku poetry is odd
Haikus are absurd