The Shadow of Sirius

US Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin was arguably the most influential American poet of the last half-century an artist who transfigured and reinvigorated the vision of poetry for our time. Bloodaxe published his Selected Poems in 2007. At 82, Merwin produced his best book in a decade and one of the best outright (Publishers Weekly), and a collection which has won him his second Pulitzer Prize in the US and a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in the UK. The nuanced mysteries of light, darkness, presence, and memory are central themes in his latest collection. I have only what I remember, Merwin admits, and his memories are focused and profound-the distinct qualities of autumn light, a conversation with a boyhood teacher, well-cultivated loves, and our long evenings and astonishment. In Photographer, Merwin presents the scene where armloads of antique glass negatives are saved from a dumpcart by someone who understood. In Empty Lot, Merwin evokes a child lying in bed at night, listening to the muffled dynamite blasts of coal mining near his home, and we cant help but ask: How shall we mine our lives?