vii

Contents

THE FIRST FOUR BOOKS OF POEMS

A MasK for JanUs (1952)Anabasis (I), 5Anabasis (II), 7Rime of the Palmers, 10Ballad of John Cable and Three Gentlemen, 14Meng Tzu’s Song, 17Blind William’s Song, 18For a Dissolving Music, 20Half Roundel, 21A Dance of Death, 22Variation on a Line by Emerson, 24Over the Bier of the Worldling, 26Epitaph on Certain Schismatics, 26Suspicor Speculum, 27Epitaph, 27Ode: The Medusa Face, 27Festival, 28Dictum: For a Masque of Deluge, 29The Bones of Palinurus Pray to the North Star, 31Sestina, 31Herons, 32Song with the Eyes Closed, 34Canción y Glosa, 34Carol, 36Carol of the Three Kings, 37Carol, 38A Poem for Dorothy, 39Hermione on Simulacra, 39Song, 41Song, 42

The DancinG Bears (1954)Tower, 45Runes for a Round Table, 47

W. S. Merwin 1952-1993

viii contents

The Lady with the Heron, 49When I Came from Colchis, 51You, Genoese Mariner, 52Fable, 53The Passion, 55Margery’s Song, 57Song of the Mad Menagerie, 58Song of Marvels, 59Song of Three Smiles, 60Song of the New Fool, 61East of the Sun and West of the Moon, 62On the Subject of Poetry, 75Proteus, 76Colloquy at Peniel, 78December: Of Aphrodite, 79Canso, 80Canso, 84Canso, 91

Green with Beasts (1956)To Dido, 97

Part One, Physiologus: Chapters for a BestiaryLeviathan, 99Blue Cockerel, 100Two Horses, 101Dog, 102White Goat, White Ram, 104

Part TwoThe Bathers, 109The Wilderness, 109The Wakening, 110The Prodigal Son, 110The Annunciation, 114The Mountain, 120Saint Sebastian, 124The Isaiah of Souillac, 124The Station, 125The Master, 127Tobacco, 129Burning the Cat, 130

contents ix

Dog Dreaming, 131Backwater Pond: The Canoeists, 131River Sound Remembered, 132After the Flood, 132In the Heart of Europe, 133A Sparrow Sheltering Under a Column of the

British Museum, 134Learning a Dead Language, 135Three Faces, 136Her Wisdom, 137The Sapphire, 138Thorn Leaves in March, 139Low Fields and Light, 140Birds Waking, 141

Part ThreeEvening with Lee Shore and Cliffs, 144The Fishermen, 144Two Paintings by Alfred Wallis, 144Senility Cay, 145Fog, 146The Shipwreck, 147The Eyes of the Drowned Watch Keels Going Over, 148Mariners’ Carol, 149

The DrUnK in the FUrnace (1960)Odysseus, 153The Iceberg, 153Foghorn, 154Deception Island, 155Sea Wife, 156The Frozen Sea, 156Sailor Ashore, 157The Portland Going Out, 158Sea Monster, 159Cape Dread, 160Bell Buoy, 162The Bones, 163The Highway, 164Fable, 165Luther, 165

x contents

Bucolic, 166Under the Old One, 166No One, 167In a Cloud of Hands, 168In Stony Country, 169Catullus XI, 169Summer, 170Some Winter Sparrows, 171Plea for a Captive, 173Choice of Prides, 173The Climb, 174Blind Girl, 175One-Eye, 176Small Woman on Swallow Street, 178The Gleaners, 179Pool Room in the Lions Club, 180John Otto, 180Uncle Hess, 181Grandfather in the Old Men’s Home, 182Grandmother Watching at Her Window, 183Grandmother Dying, 183The Native, 185Burning Mountain, 187Grandmother and Grandson, 188The Hotel-Keepers, 189The Drunk in the Furnace, 191

THE SECOND FOUR BOOKS OF POEMS

Preface, 194The MoVinG TarGet (1963)

Home for Thanksgiving, 201A Letter from Gussie, 202Lemuel’s Blessing, 204By Day and By Night, 206In the Gorge, 207Separation, 207The Defeated, 207Noah’s Raven, 207

contents xi

As By Water, 208Things, 208Savonarola, 209Inscription for a Burned Bridge, 209Economy, 209Lost Month, 209Dead Hand, 210Acclimatization, 210The Saint of the Uplands, 211The Nails, 212Sire, 213Finally, 214The Ships Are Made Ready in Silence, 215Route with No Number, 216To My Brother Hanson, 218In the Night Fields, 220Now and Again, 221Another Year Come, 222October, 222Departure’s Girl-Friend, 223One Way, 224Recognition, 225Invocation, 226The Poem, 226Second Sight, 226Witnesses, 228The Indigestion of the Vampire, 228The Singer, 229The Continuo, 230Vocations, 231Air, 231The Present, 232Standards, 233From a Series, 234Bread and Butter, 235We Continue, 235Marica Lart, 236Reunion, 236Walk-Up, 237To Where We Are, 238

xii contents

The Crossroads of the World Etc., 239Resolution, 242Before That, 244For the Grave of Posterity, 245This Day of This Month of This Year of This, 245The Way to the River, 248She Who Was Gone, 250My Friends, 251The Man Who Writes Ants, 252The Next, 253The Students of Justice, 255An Island in the Harbor, 256Mountain Town, 256For Now, 257Spring, 263Daybreak, 264

The Lice (1967)The Animals, 267Is That What You Are, 267The Hydra, 268Some Last Questions, 269An End in Spring, 270I Live Up Here, 270The Last One, 271Unfinished Book of Kings, 273It Is March, 277Bread at Midnight, 277Caesar, 278Pieces for Other Lives, 279The Moths, 280Whenever I Go There, 281Wish, 282The Wave, 282News of the Assassin, 283April, 284The Gods, 284The River of Bees, 285The Widow, 286

contents xiii

Looking East at Night, 287The Child, 288A Debt, 289The Plaster, 290In Autumn, 291Crows on the North Slope, 291New Moon in November, 292December Night, 292After the Solstice, 292December Among the Vanished, 293Glimpse of the Ice, 293The Cold Before the Moonrise, 294Early January, 294The Room, 294Dusk in Winter, 294A Scale in May, 295Evening, 296The Dream Again, 296How We Are Spared, 296The Dragonfly, 296Provision, 297The Herds, 297The Mourner, 297For the Anniversary of My Death, 298Divinities, 299The Dry Stone Mason, 299In the Winter of My Thirty-Eighth Year, 300When You Go Away, 301The Asians Dying, 301When the War Is Over, 302Peasant, 302For a Coming Extinction, 304In a Clearing, 305Avoiding News by the River, 306Death of a Favorite Bird, 307Fly, 307The Finding of Reasons, 308Come Back, 309Watchers, 309

xiv contents

My Brothers the Silent, 310In One of the Retreats of Morning, 311Looking for Mushrooms at Sunrise, 311

The Carrier of LaDDers (1970)Plane, 315Teachers, 315The Owl, 316The Different Stars, 317The Dead Hive, 318The Mountains, 319The Bridges, 320The Hands, 321Do Not Die, 321Words from a Totem Animal, 322Animula, 325Quince, 326The Judgment of Paris, 326Edouard, 329Not These Hills, 330The Piper, 330The Lake, 331The Church, 332A Calm in April, 333The Birds on the Morning of Going, 333Envoy from D’Aubigné, 334Encounter, 336The Well, 336Lark, 337The Black Plateau, 338The Approaches, 340The Wheels of the Trains, 341Lackawanna, 341Other Travelers to the River, 343The Trail into Kansas, 343Western Country, 344The Gardens of Zuñi, 345Homeland, 346February, 346Huckleberry Woman, 347

contents xv

Little Horse, 348The Port, 348Presidents, 350The Free, 350The Prints, 351The Removal, 351The Old Room, 353The Night of the Shirts, 355Shoe Repairs, 356Age, 356Laughter, 357Snowfall, 357Banishment in Winter, 358Footprints on the Glacier, 359Tale, 360Full Moonlight in Spring, 360Night Wind, 360Midnight in Early Spring, 361As Though I Was Waiting for That, 361The Plumbing, 362Beginning of the Plains, 363Ascent, 364The Hulk, 365Fear, 366Pilate, 369Shore, 371Psalm: Our Fathers, 372Cuckoo Myth, 376Second Psalm: The Signals, 378The Pens, 379The Forbears, 380Voice, 380Last People, 381Third Psalm: The September Vision, 382After the Harvests, 384Now It Is Clear, 384Man with One Leaf in October Night, 385Woman from the River, 385Late Night in Autumn, 385Still Afternoon Light, 386

xvi contents

Kin, 386Memory of Spring, 386Signs, 387The Paw, 389The Thread, 391The Blessing, 392Beginning, 393The First Darkness, 393The Chaff, 394Fourth Psalm: The Cerements, 394The Web, 396Letter, 397Inscription Facing Western Sea, 399The Sadness, 399The Calling Under the Breath, 399Sunset After Rain, 400Elegy, 400In the Time of the Blossoms, 400

WritinGs to an UnfinisheD AccomPaniment (1973)Early One Summer, 403Eyes of Summer, 403End of Summer, 403The Distances, 404Looking Back, 404Song of Man Chipping an Arrowhead, 404The Silence Before Harvest, 405Cat Ghosts, 405Letter to the Heart, 405Memory of the Loss of Wings, 406The Old Boast, 406The Day, 406The Clear Skies, 406To Be Sung While Still Looking, 407Under the Migrants, 408On the Silent Anniversary of a Reunion, 409On Each Journey, 409Beyond You, 410Their Week, 410Old Flag, 411

contents xvii

The Current, 411Something I’ve Not Done, 412Tool, 413Bread, 413Habits, 414A Door, 415A Door, 416A Door, 418A Door, 418Surf-Casting, 419At the Same Time, 420The Wharf, 420Beggars and Kings, 421The Unwritten, 422Spring, 423The Place of Backs, 423Division, 423A Purgatory, 424The Chase, 425A Wood, 426Nomad Songs, 426The Diggers, 427Ash, 428Animals from Mountains, 428Sibyl, 429Who It Is, 430Mist, 431Under Black Leaves, 431A Sickness at the Equinox, 432Wanting a Soul in the South, 433Horses, 434Ship, 434Words, 435One Time, 435The Way Ahead, 435Summits, 437To the Hand, 437Folk Art, 438The Second Time, 438Exercise, 439

xviii contents

Instructions to Four Walls, 440In the Life of Dust, 441A Flea’s Carrying Words, 442When the Horizon Is Gone, 443The Lantern, 444Apparition, 445A Number, 446Dogs, 446The War, 447The Water of the Suns, 447A Prayer of the Eyes, 448The Cry, 449By the Cloud Path, 450A Hollow, 451For Saying That It Won’t Matter, 451Foreword, 452Finding a Teacher, 453The Palace, 454Ballade of Sayings, 454To the Rain, 456The Dreamers, 456September, 457Flies, 458The Writing on a Fallen Leaf, 459South, 459Span, 459Meeting, 460History of Alchemy, 460The Initiate, 461The Search, 462Glass, 462Traveling, 463The Track, 464Peril, 464The Sleeping Mountain, 465Gift, 466

contents xix

FLOWER & HAND

The ComPass Flower (1977)I

The Heart, 471The Wine, 472The Drive Home, 472The Next Moon, 473The Snow, 474The Arrival, 474Apples, 475An Encampment at Morning, 476Migration, 476November, 476The Horse, 477A Contemporary, 477Fishing, 478Guardians, 478Fate, 479On the Mountain, 480Vision, 480The Deluge, 480Robin, 481

IICity, 483Line, 483The Estuary, 484The Rock, 484The Counting Houses, 485The Helmsmen, 486Numbered Apartment, 487St. Vincent’s, 489The Shuttles, 491

IIIThe Vineyard, 493Crossing Place, 493Summer Night on the Stone Barrens, 494September Plowing, 494Working into Autumn, 495Memory of Summer Facing West, 495

xx contents

The Love for October, 496Autumn Evening, 496Kore, 497Passage, 502In the Pass, 503Spring Equinox Full Moon, 503The Morning, 505Summer Doorway, 505The Hosts, 506Islands, 506Mountain Day, 507Snowline, 507Twilight, 508Late Snow, 508June Rain, 509White Summer Flower, 509Trees, 510Grass Beginning July, 510

IVThe Coin, 513Ferry Port, 514The Banquet, 515Service, 516Some of the Masts, 516North Wind, 517Island, 517Junction, 518Remembering a Boatman, 519Assembly, 519Old Garden, 520The Fig Tree, 521The Windows, 521The Falcons, 522The Trestle, 522Talk of Fortune, 523The Fountain, 524Sun, 524The Flight, 525

contents xxi

Feathers from the Hill (1978)Time of Tree Cutting, 529Summer Canyon, 530Sound of Rapids of Laramie River in Late August, 536Fireweed, 536In the Red Mountains, 539Road, 541Island City, 541By the Mango Trees, 545Warm Pastures, 546Sheep Clouds, 549

OPeninG the HanD (1983)I

The Waters, 555The Oars, 555Sunset Water, 556The Waving of a Hand, 556Strawberries, 557A Pause by the Water, 558Son, 559Sun and Rain, 559The Houses, 560Apparitions, 564Birdie, 566The Burnt Child, 567Yesterday, 568Talking, 570After a Storm, 570The Cart, 572Photograph, 573Unknown Forebear, 573A Family, 575

IIShaving Without a Mirror, 577Visitation, 578The Red House, 578Tidal Lagoon, 579Green Water Tower, 579

xxii contents

High Water, 580Line of Trees, 580A House to the West, 581The Cow, 581Questions to Tourists Stopped by a Pineapple Field, 583The Briefcase, 586Late Wonders, 587Going, 588Standing Nowhere, 588Coming Back in the Spring, 588Happens Every Day, 590Sheridan, 591The Fields, 594

IIIPalm, 596The Shore, 596The Night Surf, 597The Quoit, 597The Middle of Summer, 598James, 599Berryman, 599A Birthday, 601The Sea Cliffs at Kailua in December, 601Ali, 602The School on the Roof, 604Going from the Green Window, 604The Truth of Departure, 605One Night, 606Émigré, 606What Is Modern, 608Direction, 609The New Season, 610Hearing, 611The Black Jewel, 613

THE RAIN IN THE TREES (1988)Late Spring, 617West Wall, 617The First Year, 618

contents xxiii

Native Trees, 618Touching the Tree, 619Night Above the Avenue, 620Now Renting, 621Glasses, 622Shadow Passing, 624History, 624Notes from a Journey, 626Pastures, 630After School, 632Empty Water, 634Rain at Night, 635Waking to the Rain, 635The Salt Pond, 636Summer ’82, 637Before Us, 638The Sound of the Light, 639Sky in September, 640Anniversary on the Island, 641Sight, 641The Solstice, 642Coming to the Morning, 643Being Early, 643Travelling Together, 644The Inevitable Lightness, 644The Crust, 645Mementos, 646Print Fallen Out of Somewhere, 646Utterance, 647Paper, 648Thanks, 648At the Same Time, 649Coming to Hear, 650To the Insects, 651After the Alphabets, 652The Superstition, 652The Overpass, 653Snow, 653For the Departure of a Stepson, 654

xxiv contents

Airport, 655Liberty, 656Journey, 657Memory, 658The Duck, 659Hearing the Names of the Valleys, 659The Strangers from the Horizon, 660Conqueror, 661Native, 662Place, 663Witness, 663Chord, 664Losing a Language, 664The Lost Originals, 666Term, 667Kanaloa, 668The Horizons of Rooms, 669Knock, 671The Biology of Art, 671The Archaic Maker, 672Tracing the Letters, 672The Rose Beetle, 673

TRAVELS (1993)Cover Note, 677The Blind Seer of Ambon, 678Manini, 680Writing Lives, 683The Hill of Evening, 684Barn, 687Rimbaud’s Piano, 688Among Bells, 692Search Party, 695Missing, 696Paul, 698Kites, 699A Distance, 701The Morning Train, 702Fulfilment, 703

contents xxv

The Lost Camellia of the Bartrams, 706After Douglas, 708Cinchona, 710Inheritance, 716The Day Itself, 719Lives of the Artists, 723Panes, 730The Wars in New Jersey, 733A Short Nap on the Way, 734The Moment of Green, 736The River, 742So Far, 743The Palms, 744Immortelles, 746Field Mushrooms, 747Lunar Landscape, 748Looking Up, 749For the Year, 749The Real World of Manuel Córdova, 751Another Place, 767One Story, 776Rain Travel, 778On the Back of the Boarding Pass, 778Last Morning at Punta Arena, 779Mirage, 779On the Old Way, 780Left Open, 781Stone Village, 781Turning, 782A Summer Night, 782After the Spring, 783

UNCOLLECTED POEMS (1955–1987)Camel (1955), 787Several Distiches about an Occasion (1955), 789Northeast October (1956), 790Mercy (1957), 790The Miner (1957), 791Coal Barges (1957), 792

xxvi contents

Rimer, Penna. (1957), 792On a Sacrifice of Darkness (1959), 793Views from the High Camp (1962), 794Esther (1968), 795The Borrowers (1970), 796In Winter Silence (1973), 797A Root (1974), 798Demonstration (1974), 798A Last Look (1987), 799

Chronology, 803Note on the Texts, 819Notes, 823Index of Poem Titles and First Lines, 835

vii

Contents

The ViXen (1996)Fox Sleep, 3Oak Time, 5Gate, 6Threshold, 6The West Window, 7Authority, 7Walkers, 8Ill Wind, 9Net, 9Garden, 10Letters, 10Commemoratives, 11White Morning, 12Color Merchants, 12Entry, 13Forgotten Streams, 14Present, 14Passing, 15The Bird, 15Returning Season, 16End of a Day, 16Other Time, 17François de Maynard 1582–1646, 17Hölderlin at the River, 19In the Doorway, 19One of the Lives, 20Night Singing, 20Untouched, 21Romanesque, 21Dry Ground, 22Battues, 23Snake, 23Vehicles, 24Late, 24Season, 25

W. S. Merwin 1996-2011

viii contents

Emergence, 25The Speed of Light, 26Old Question, 27One Time, 27Peire Vidal, 28The View, 28Old Walls, 29The Furrow, 30The Time Before, 30Portrait, 30Possessions, 31Legacies, 32The Red, 33Completion, 33Passing, 34Substance, 34The Shortest Night, 35A Taste, 36Upland House, 36Bodies of Water, 37After Fires, 38Thread, 39The Cisterns, 40Ancestral Voices, 40Old Sound, 41Green Fields, 41Distant Morning, 42Vixen, 43A Given Day, 43

The FolDinG Cliffs: A NarratiVe (1998), 45Climbing, 50The Mountain, 76Born, 105There, 136The Cliffs, 206The Shore, 245

The RiVer SoUnD (1999)Ceremony After an Amputation, 287The Stranger, 288

contents ix

The Gardens of Versailles, 290Chorus, 291What Is a Garden, 292A Night Fragrance, 293Night Turn, 293Before a Departure in Spring, 294Remembering, 294Another River, 294Echoing Light, 295Returns After Dark, 296227 Waverly Place, 297Sixth Floor Walk-Up, 298Legend, 298Clear Water, 300Harm’s Way, 301Whoever You Are, 302The Causeway, 302The Chinese Mountain Fox, 304The Old Year, 307Lament for the Makers, 309Suite in the Key of Forgetting, 316Testimony, 325Inauguration, 377A Claim, 378That Music, 379The Wren, 379Syllables, 380Wanting to See, 380Orioles, 380Jeanne Duval, 381Sheep Passing, 383Moissac, 383Seed Time, 384Frame, 384Shore Birds, 385Waves in August, 386Travelling West at Night, 387This Time, 387The Notes, 388Left Hand, 389Late Glimpse, 389

x contents

Accompaniment, 390Field Note, 390The String, 390

The PUPil (2001)Prophecy, 395The Comet Museum, 395Sonnet, 396The Time of Shadow, 396The Hours of Darkness, 397Flights in the Dark, 399The Marfa Lights, 400Migrants by Night, 402In the Open, 403Overtone, 405Fires in Childhood, 405Glassy Sea, 406The Moment, 407Any Time, 407Far Company, 408Aliens, 408Mid-Air Mirror, 409A Term, 410Unspoken Greeting, 410The Open Land, 411Before the Flood, 411A Calling, 412Remembering the Signs, 412Lit in Passing, 413At Night Before Spring, 414One Night in April, 415Unknown Bird, 415Daylight, 417Worn, 417Downstream, 418Before the May Fair, 418Once in Spring, 419The Veil of May, 420The Youth of Animals, 421The Hollow in the Stone, 422

contents xi

Late Song, 422The Source, 423First Sight, 424First of June, 424Unseen Touch, 425The Summer, 425The Black Virgin, 426To the Spiders of This Room, 426Above the Long Field, 427Under the Day, 428Simon’s Vision, 428Wings, 429A Morning in Autumn, 430The Night Plums, 431In the Old Vineyard, 431Just Now, 432To a Friend Who Keeps Telling Me That He Has

Lost His Memory, 433Planh for the Death of Ted Hughes, 434A Collection, 434A Death in the Desert, 435Calling Late, 435One of the Laws, 436Star, 437Feast Day, 438Good People, 439The Fence, 439The Sleeper, 440In Time, 441Through a Glass, 442Before Morning, 442Earlier, 443Memorandum, 444To Echo, 445The Wild, 445Transit, 446Usage, 447Home Tundra, 448Monologue, 449The Name of the Air, 449

xii contents

To Maoli as the Year Ends, 450The Flight of Language, 450Heights, 450This January, 451

Present ComPany (2005)To This May, 455To the Soul, 455To a Reflection, 456To the Face in the Mirror, 456To Waiting, 457To Impatience, 458To Age, 459To Lingering Regrets, 460To My Teeth, 461To the Ancient Order of Legs, 462To My Legs, 463To the Tongue, 464To the Gift of Sight, 464To the Corner of the Eye, 466To the Shadow, 467To Another William, 467To History, 468To the Unlikely Event, 469To a Departing Companion, 470To Lili’s Walk, 471To a Friend Travelling, 471To the Sorrow String, 472To _____________, 472To the Consolations of Philosophy, 473To Grief, 474To Absence, 475To the Knife, 476To Prose, 477To Duty, 478To Billy’s Car, 479To the Present Visitors, 480To the Present Tense, 481To the Air, 481To Muku Dreaming, 482

contents xiii

To the Dust of the Road, 483To That Stretch of Canal, 484To the Blue Stork, 484To the Sound of the Gate, 485To the Stone Paddock by the Far Barn, 486To a Few Cherries, 488To My Mother, 488To My Grandfathers, 489To My Aunt Margie, 490To My Father’s Houses, 490To My Brother, 491To Micky, 492To Doris, 493To the Old, 493To the Dog Stars, 495To the Tray Dancers, 495To the Mistakes, 497To Luck, 498To the Blank Spaces, 499To the Morning (1), 499To Monday, 500To the Long Table, 501To the Margin, 502To the Middle, 502To the Next Time, 503To the Light of September, 504To the Words, 505To the Grass of Autumn, 506To Ashes, 507To Zbigniew Herbert’s Bicycle, 508To the Coming Winter, 509To the Smell of Water, 509To the Beginning of Rain, 510To a Mosquito, 511To Glass, 512To Purity, 513To Salt, 514To the Lightning, 515To the Escape of Light, 516To a Leaf Falling in Winter, 517

xiv contents

To the Fire, 517To Smoke, 518To Forgetting, 519To the Wires Overhead, 520To a Tortoiseshell Lyre, 521To the Gods, 522To the Veil, 523To the Way Back, 524To the Thief at the Airport, 525To the Afterlife, 526To Finding Again, 527To the Surgeon Kevin Lin, 528To Days of Winter, 529To a Friend Turning Fifty, 529To Being Late, 530To the Morning (2), 531To the Moss, 532To an Old Acacia, 532To the Story, 533To a Dormouse, 534To the Parting Year, 535To the New Year, 536To the Unfinished, 536To Paula, 537To Myself, 538To the Happy Few, 538To the Book, 539

The ShaDow of SiriUs (2008)The Nomad Flute, 543Blueberries After Dark, 543Still Morning, 544By the Avenue, 545Note, 545Accompaniment, 546Without Knowing, 546The Song of the Trolleys, 547From the Start, 548Far Along in the Story, 548The Pinnacle, 549

contents xv

Child Light, 550Empty Lot, 551No, 552The Piano, 552Secrets, 553A Likeness, 554Raiment, 555Europe, 556Photographer, 557Traces, 558Inheritance, 559A Broken Glass, 560Lament for a Stone, 561A Note from the Cimmerians, 561A Codex, 562Beyond Question, 563Youth, 564

IIBy Dark, 566Calling a Distant Animal, 566Night with No Moon, 567Good Night, 567At the Bend, 568Into the Cloud, 568Another Dream of Burial, 569A Ring, 569Little Soul, 570Trail Marker, 570Dream of Koa Returning, 571

IIICargo, 573Going, 573The Curlew, 574Nocturne, 574Day Without a Name, 575Recognitions, 575Escape Artist, 576The Mole, 577Eye of Shadow, 578A Letter to Ruth Stone, 579

xvi contents

Worn Words, 580A Letter to Su Tung-p’o, 580Bashō’s Child, 581The Odds, 581The Long and the Short of It, 582Unknown Age, 582My Hand, 583What the Bridges Hear, 583The First Days, 584Heartland, 585Long Afternoon Light, 586Cave, 586The Morning Hills, 587Cold Spring Morning, 587Near Field, 588To Paula in Late Spring, 588Youth of Grass, 589The Silence of the Mine Canaries, 589Walled Place Above the River, 590A Horse Heaven, 592One of the Butterflies, 592Parts of a Tune, 593Nocturne II, 593White Note, 594Gray Herons in the Field Above the River, 594No Shadow, 595The Making of Amber, 596September’s Child, 596Remembering the Wings, 597Shadow Hand, 597Barrade, 598Into October, 599Lights Out, 599Falling, 600Grace Note, 600One Valley, 601The Old Trees on the Hill, 601A Single Autumn, 602Lake Shore in Half Light, 603

contents xvii

A Momentary Creed, 604Rain Light, 604Just This, 605The Laughing Thrush, 605

New anD UncollecteD Poems 1993–2011The Stone (1993), 609Tide Line Garden (1999), 609Ogres (2003), 613The Swallows (2006), 614Known Sound (2006), 614Why Some People Do Not Read Poetry (2009), 615Young Man Picking Flowers (2009), 615A Message to Po Chu-i (2010), 616By the Front Door (2010), 617Beginners (2010), 617The Name of the Morning (2010), 618The Green Fence (2010), 619Variation on a Theme (2010), 621Turning (2011), 622Urticophilia (2011), 622The New Song (2011), 623

Chronology, 627 Note on the Texts, 643 Notes, 645Index of Poem Titles and First Lines, 669