21 Quotes by W.S. Merwin

Everything that does not need you is real

On the door it says what to do to surviveBut we were not born to surviveOnly to live

Through all of youth I was looking for youwithout knowing what I was looking for

The Hydra calls me but I am used to itIt calls me EverybodyBut I know my name and do not answer

all I did not know went on beginning around meI had thought it would come later but it had been waiting

even there a shining is flowing from all the stonesthough the eyes are not yet made that can see it

I know how words are, how they goeverywhere, one hint is enough.They talk of love, what do they know?We have the morsel and the knife.

To rememberIs not to rehearse, but to hear what neverHas fallen silent.

I do not think I am fond, Father,Of the way in which always before he listensHe prepares himself by listening. It isUnequal, Father, like the reasonFor which the wheel turns, though there is no wheel.