num_pages: 152
description: “One of America’s greatest living poets.”— The Washington Post Book World “Merwin keeps his language simple but his perceptions complex. Classical in their lines of inquiry and restraint yet vital in their attunement to the here and now, these personal odes and musings on daily existence and the cycles of life are, by turns, bemused and exalted . . . each poem infuses the collection with buoyancy and light.”— Booklist Now in paperback, W.S. Merwin’s latest masterwork—which reviewers have described as “meditative,” “playful,” and “lithely beautiful”—guides readers to universal themes through worldly specifics. Akin to Pablo Neruda’s Elemental Odes, every poem in Present Company directly addresses the people and things of daily life, as in “To the Thief at the Airport” or “To Lingering Regrets.” “To This May” They know so much more now aboutthe heart we are told but the worldstill seems to come one at a timeone day one year one season and hereit is spring once more with its birdsnesting in the holes in the wallsits morning finding the first timeits light pretending not to movealways beginning as it goes
language: English
title: Present Company
titlecomplete: Present Company
genres: Poetry
ratings_count: 190
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
publisher: Copper Canyon Press