Yesterday

My friend says I was not a good son
you understand
I say yes I understand

he says I did not go
to see my parents very often you know
and I say yes I know

even when I was living in the same city he says
maybe I would go there once
a month or maybe even less
I say oh yes
 

W. S. Merwin at the Academy of American Poets

An interview by Daniel Bourne for Artful Dodge:

I don't have any ideological sense of what is Merwinlike or un-Merwinlike. I'm always happy to find I'm writing a poem which is different from anything I've written before, but I don't think you can really write out a paradigm.