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Merwin Recollected: Echo-Futures With or Without Us
Poetic recollections

Calling Back

Naomi Shihab Nye

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Calling Back

For W.S. Merwin

The last time we ever
spoke by phone
things blurring by then
words farther apart
drifting syllable threads

What’s that? you’d say
asking me to repeat something

But how are you really?
knowing you missed Paula too much
to talk about it

We traded words tenderly
your trees
our tree you had planted
so many years ago
when we all had easier times
walking hidden roads

Silences felt lit
soft evening light on my end
afternoon birds on yours

In the gaps
your breathing calm as ever
You laughed
You said
Ah well the way
you always did
You held a note
You were still William
in every way
I thanked you for
encouraging me
always
to speak to the dead
out loud
You said they might even
answer sometimes
in ways that might be
important
surely this had been true
already
and would be even more true
later

When we hung up
so reluctantly on my side
I sat at the wooden table
trying to rise
thinking that might be
the last time I ever heard
such a dear voice
in my ear

Maybe our giant palm
that you had planted
from a baby shoot in your pocket
plucked at Gonzales
was bowing down right then

When the phone dinged
your number again
it seemed a mistake
for sure

But your gentle voice
elegant precious voice
that had traveled so many miles
said so many poems
helped so many people
feel more at home in words
than on earth
gift of so many lifetimes
was right there
firmly asking

Could we talk some more?

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Référence électronique

Naomi Shihab Nye, « Calling Back »Transatlantica [En ligne], 2 | 2024, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2024, consulté le 09 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/24132 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/134gu

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Auteur

Naomi Shihab Nye

Poet, Texas State University

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Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

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