Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment Quotes

“My cradle
was a shoe.”
― W.S. Merwin, Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment

“...The silence of a place where there were once horses
is a mountain

and I have seen by lightning that ever mountain
once fell from the air
ringing
like the chime of an iron shoe...”
― W.S. Merwin, Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment

“To The Rain"

You reach me out of the age of the air
clear
falling toward me
each one new
if any of you has a name
it is unknown

but waited for you here
that long
for you to fall through it knowing nothing

hem of the garment
do not wait
until I can love all that I am to know
for maybe that will never be

touch me this time
let me love what I cannot know
as the man born blind may love color
until all that he loves
fills him with color”
― W.S. Merwin, Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment

“To The Hand”

What the eye sees is a dream of sight
what it wakes to
is a dream of sight

and in the dream
for every real lock
there is only one real key
and it’s in some other dream
now invisible

it’s the key to the one real door
it opens the water and the sky both at once
it’s already in the downward river
with my hand on it
my real hand

and I am saying to the hand
turn

open the river”
― W.S. Merwin, Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment