W.S. Merwin named poet laureate
W.S. Merwin is the 17th US poet laureate. The Library of Congress announced this afternoon that Merwin, who has spent much of the past 30 years secluded in Hawaii, will succeed Kay Ryan, who has held the post since 2008. Merwin, 82, has won the Pulitzer Prize twice, in 2009 and 1971. And he has a Boston connection: He was playwright-in-residence at the Poets' Theater in Cambridge in 1956-57, according to Wikipedia. It was during his time here that he wrote "The Drunk in the Furnace."
A sample of his work is below:
Any Time
How long ago the day is
when at last I look at it
with the time it has taken
to be there still in it
now in the transparent light
with the flight in the voices
the beginning in the leaves
everything I remember
and before it before me
present at the speed of light
in the distance that I am
who keep reaching out to it
seeing all the time faster
where it has never stirred from
before there is anything
the darkness thinking the light
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