[Editor's note: Admittedly we're well into the new year, but it's a new year for the Natural Patriot. We've heard from this volume by W.S. Merwin before, about which a reviewer has commented "Each of the 100-plus poems in Merwin's meditative, playful, and lithely beautiful collection . . . begins with the word To and directly addresses some aspect of nature or the self, a feeling or an idea, a person, place, or moment."]
To the New Year
W.S. Merwin
With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning
so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
Dear Patriot: Welcome back! Regards, Don