The Moon Before Morning
*Starred Review* Merwin’s masterfully refined, meditative poems stem from his dwelling mindfully in one beloved place and handling words as though they are seeds, flowers, stones, and water. A former poet laureate and National Book Award winner, Merwin received his second Pulitzer Prize for his previous collection, The Shadow of Sirius (2008), and here extends his practice of closely observing nature, time, and human paradoxes. For four decades Merwin has been restoring land in Hawaii, the setting for the opening cycle of rinsed-clean lyrics, in which palm trees, clouds, each “the only one of its kind,” and his garden accentuate the perfection of nature—“no question and no doubt”—in contrast to the confusion and yearning of humankind. As he watches crows flying across a clear sky, he thinks, “Nothing is missing.” Yet he also writes of the deprivations of his gritty New Jersey childhood and his long wandering years. As Merwin contrasts reverence for the living world with heedless environmental destruction, anger surfaces. But gratitude prevails, and Merwin offers thanks for many gifts, including “words / that come out of silence and take me by surprise / and have carried me through the clear day.” Merwin has attained a transcendent and transformative elevation of beaming perception, exquisite balance, and clarifying beauty. --Donna Seaman