W. S. Merwin (1927–2019) was born in New York City. His book Migration: Selected Poems 1951–2001 won the National Book Award for poetry in 2005, and he has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In 2010 Merwin was named Poet Laureate of the United States, and in 2013 he was the first recipient of the International Zbigniew Herbert Prize. Merwin lived and worked in Hawaii, where he maintained a garden of rare and endangered palm trees.

Letter to Ruth Stone

by W. S. Merwin

Now that you have caught sight
of the other side of darkness
the invisible side
so that you can tell
it is rising
first thing in the morning
and know it is there
all through the day
another sky
clear and unseen
has begun to loom

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