W.S. Merwin United States Poet Laureate

On July 1, 2010, the Library of Congress appointed W.S. Merwin Poet Laureate. Copper Canyon Press is proud to have published poetry, prose, and translations by W.S. Merwin over the course of his storied career. His most recent collection, The Shadow of Sirius, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Read sample poems and reviews here.

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Hayden Carruth

123

And in the town, in neon-blaring twilight,
The disco already throbs. Northward the poem
Moves, faster now, a flight
Unaware of time.
In the flow of creation, short day and long night
Mingling, past la cité, into the hills bright
With the instincts of the glorious wolves,
Dark with the forest’s deepness, all selves
Of history risen now in one true person, past
The great white silent lac
where stars fade in the aurora, and at last
Out onto the open north, ecstatic,
Beyond earth and history, the nets of essence,
Free, alone with every thing, the aurora flashing,
Trumpets, the beat of the universe, immense, immense.