The Laughing Thrush
I arrange a lot of literary events for work. Conferences, lectures, poetry readings. Sometimes I actually go to them. Sometimes I have to go to them. Often they just feel like more work, which is a pity. But sometimes I actually can forget about the caterer and the taxi arrangements and just listen.
Not so much this time – the whole thing was exhausting. It’s a pity, because I think I might like this poet.
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O nameless joy of the morning
tumbling upward note by note out of the night
and the hush of the dark valley
and out of whatever has not been there
song unquestioning and unbounded
yes this is the place and the one time
in the whole of before and after
with all of memory waking into it
and the lost visages that hover
around the edge of sleep
constant and clear
and the words that lately have fallen silent
to surface among the phrases of some future
if there is a future
here is where they all sing the first daylight
whether or not there is anyone listening
~ W. S. Merwin