A conversation with poet W.S. Merwin | Bookish | a Chron.com blog

Here's a pleasant quote from an interview with W.S.Merwin, zen naturalist poet:

A haunting little poem, “Blueberries After Dark,” begins:

So this is the way the night tastes
one at a time
not early or late

my mother told me
that I was not afraid of the dark
and when I looked it was true

how did she know
so long ago

“Those were great gifts she told me from the beginning — the things I wasn’t afraid of,” Merwin says, when I mention the poem.

That leads him to another childhood memory, spooning dried peas into a brass bowl over and over again, mesmerized by the sound.

“My mother always said, ‘Billy’s never bored,’” he recalls. “All my life I’ve listened to the rain. “I think it’s utterly mysterious. Every raindrop falls just once and you only hear it at the end of its fall.”

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It's a warm-hearted chat with an amazing and popular poet and Maggie Galehouse - read it all at

A conversation with poet W.S. Merwin | Bookish | a Chron.com blog