Poem: "Losing a Language" by W.S. Merwin, from The Rain in the Trees. © Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.
Losing a Language
- A breath leaves the sentences and does not come backyet the old still remember something that they could say
- but they know now that such things are no longer believedand the young have fewer words
- many of the things the words were about no longer exist
- the noun for standing in mist by a haunted tree the verb for I
- the children will not repeatthe phrases their parents speak
- somebody has persuaded them that it is better to say everything differently
- so that they can be admired somewhere farther and farther away
- where nothing that is here is knownwe have little to say to each other
- we are wrong and darkin the eyes of the new owners
- the radio is incomprehensiblethe day is glass
- when there is a voice at the door it is foreigneverywhere instead of a name there is a lie
- nobody has seen it happening nobody remembers
- this is what the words were madeto prophes
- here are the extinct feathers here is the rain we saw
No comments:
Post a Comment