Garden Time

"Garden Time" is an exquisite and moving collection of poems. Merwin writes like a man who has loved life almost too much and now, facing his own mortality, is paying a price. The very first line of the book asks, “Would I love it this way if it could last.” That the answer is No is perhaps our greatest consolation in a fleeting world.The sense of impending loss, of the speed of time, gives an urgency to Merwin’s need to remember his experiences. An experience forgotten is a piece of life lost. Simply drinking a cup of green Korean tea, Merwin reflects, “the taste is a hush from far away / at the very moment when I sip it / trying to make it last in the knowledge / that I will forget it in the next breath.”Part of the pathos in the book rises from the many poems he wrote for his wife Paula, whose mortality worries him more than his own:These days I can see us clinging to each otheras we are swept along by the currentI am clinging to you to keep you frombeing swept away and you are clinging to meto keep me from being swept away from youPaula Merwin’s death a matter of weeks after the publication of the book makes these poems all a little sadder.Through it all, however, Merwin also recognizes the moments of happiness, of abrupt, unexpected joy, that continue to appear in his life. In the last poem, called, with obvious double meaning, “The Present,” an angel offers a gift, telling the recipients, “you will not be able to keep it / but you will not be able // to keep anything.” Merwin continues, “yet they both reached at once // for the present / and when their hands met // they laughed.” In every poem in "Garden Time," Merwin is reaching for the present in both senses: this moment of time understood as a gift.Like all Merwin’s work, the poems are simple, clean-lined, delicate as haiku though more often shaped like sonnets, and without any punctuation to guide you. If you read them aloud, however, the syntax becomes plain enough. If you hear a quiet, generous, sane music in the lines, you’re reading them right. And once you’ve finished the little book, you won’t take anything for granted.

W.S. Merwin makes nonsense of the idea that creativity belongs to the young; his last three poetry collections are arguably his best work, and he is now in his late eighties. The Shadow of Sirius won the Pulitzer in 2009, followed by The Moon Before Morning and now Garden Time. His ruminations on aging and memory, among many other topics, are both stunningly beautiful and profound. A master poet at the height of his powers, harvesting words from his little patch of Hawaii...

Few poets have been as honored as W. S. Merwin, author of 20 books of poetry and translation, twice U.S. Poet Laureate, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, a National Book Award and many other international awards. At age 90 he is still writing, still touring and often speaking of human and environmental rights. He has translated Dante, Neruda, ancient poets of China and Japan. Perhaps the most influential poet of his time, his work is always humble, personal, and yet mythical and spiritual.Garden Time (co-published in the U.S. and England) is no exception, as it explores the conscious and semi-conscious worlds of age and wisdom. One enters Merwin’s world where the personal and mythic sense blend magically conveying a naturalness of all. He has always been one to use poetry to express the inexpressible, always with a sense of exploring the mind-body realm. Of note, Merwin’s absence of capitals and punctuation in his craft suggests a natural core of communication. Its charm is that it succeeds in bringing us further into his voice and transcendent world.In “Pianist in the Dark” we sense the magic of music and nature:The music is not in the keysit has never been seenthe notes set out to findeach otherlistening for their waywhen they move they are the musicthey have always beenwaiting forthe leaves stirring in the night airas it changes around themthe rain arrives in a slow minorthe keys sing to themselves in their dream of dancingthey make their own musicthey make it againNot only does he capture the core of music and movement, but by using his associative method he connects it with the way of nature. The fact that so many of his poems defy simple explanation testifies to the strength of his vision and method.Here TogetherThese days I can see us clinging to each otheras we are swept along by the currentI am clinging to you to keep you frombeing swept away and you are clinging to meto keep me from being swept away from youwe see the shores blurring past as we holdeach other in the rushing currentthe daylight rushes unheard far above ushow long will we be swept along in the daylighthow long will we cling together in the nightand where will it carry us togetherThough his profound sense of life’s movement and bonding of past-present-future have long been a part of W. S. Merwin’s work, in Garden Time he connects it with the eternal.Reviewed in New York Journal of Books.

I had not read much poetry since HS many years ago. Was introduced to W.S. Merwin when visiting his palm conservatory on Maui when the docent read poems as we toured his amazing palm forest he planted to conserve endangered species of palms. Amazing life, fantastic garden, wonderful poetry.

W. S. Merwin was a great American poet who died this year (2019) at the age of 92. Garden Time is his last collection, published in 2016. Here are the final lines from "Black Cherries": "not a sound comes from the empty village/as I stand eating the black cherries/from the loaded branches above me/saying to myself Remember this". The last line in the book, that is, the last line in the last collection he published, is "they laughed". Merwin was a gift to us all. My heart broke a little the day I heard of his death, and I thought immediately of the one-line poem "Elegy" from his early collection The Carrier of Ladders: "Who would I show it to". It is wonderful to have these last poems he has shown to us, even if we cannot show him our thanks.

Moments of brilliant awareness about land, self, garden, and the metaphysics of living wisely. Pure bliss.

I refer to this poetry when I need emotional, spiritual support. I give this precious volume to friends who are facing the reality of aging, ill health, and the enigma of life.

A book of beautiful imagery and poignant.

Excellent, thank you.

rec'dthanks, bobb

O maior.