Poetry Pairs, 2

"The Morning" & you

Hello, Poetry Friend

I love mornings — the darker the better. So “The Morning” by W.S. Merwin is a natural poem pairing for me. The Daily Poem covered it in 2019, but I only found it in 2022. I’d been looking for a Merwin to learn, and this one surprised me and called my name.

It begins, “Would I love it this way if it could last”

The poem has no punctuation; it’s just one long, loving meditation, from a poet who created a palm tree sanctuary in Hawaii and who adored my beautiful, flawed state of Texas. Whose poems always take me somewhere I didn’t know I needed to go.

The speaker in the poem loves The Morning but wonders whether he would love it this way if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if. (Nine times, if.) My favorite if’s come all in a clump:

would I love it this way if I were somewhere else

or if I were younger for the first time

or if these very birds were not singing

or I could not hear them or see their trees

Before it was ordinary to be consumed by fear, I was consumed by fear. Before it was common to be consumed by anger, I was consumed by anger. Like all feelings, those are valid and potentially life-saving, but in my case, they were also a little soul-killing.

Enter Merwin and “The Morning.”

The Morning

Would I love it this way if it could last

would I love it this way if it

were the whole sky the one heaven

or if I could believe that it belonged to me

a possession that was mine alone

or if I imagined that it noticed me

recognized me and may have come to see me

out of all the mornings that I never knew

and all those that I have forgotten

would I love it this way if I were somewhere else

or if I were younger for the first time

or if these very birds were not singing

or I could not hear them or see their trees

would I love it this way if I were in pain

red torment of body or gray void of grief

would I love it this way if I knew

that I would remember anything that is 

here now anything anything

– W.S. Merwin

For me this poem is also about someone — someone I long for. Each day I arise in hope: Maybe today will be The Morning. At evening, when my if does not come to pass, I lie still: Maybe tomorrow will be The Morning.

P.S. I remember everything everything.

Poetry Journal

• Read W.S. Merwin’s poem. Think about what is your morning.

• Jot down what you notice, what you like, what you don’t, what questions you have, and at least one way in which the poem speaks to you.

• Read the poem aloud every day for a week. (Until I share the next poem, on Wednesday.) Is a pairing arising?

• Write your own poem about “The Morning” and the new association is has for you. (Mine is at meganwillome.com.) If you like, email me what you write.

Happy poeming!

Megan