Poetry in Motion
New York
Remembering Summer
W. S. Merwin
Remembering Summer
Being too warm the old lady said to me
is better than being too cold I think now
in between is the best because you never
give it a thought but it goes by too fast
I remember the winter how cold it got
I could never get warm wherever I was
but I don’t remember the summer heat like that
only the long days the breathing of the trees
the evenings with the hens still talking in the lane
and the light getting longer in the valley
the sound of a bell from down there somewhere
I can sit here now still listening to it
"Remembering Summer" from Garden Time © 2016 by W.S. Merwin.
Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press.
Untitled (2017) © Mickalene Thomas, MTA NYC Transit 53 St. Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design.