How We Are Spared, from The Lice, 1967

W.S. Merwin, born 1929, American poet

 

 

At midsummer before the dawn an orange light returns to the mountain

 

 

Red Sun, oil on canvas, 1935.  Arthur Dove, 1880-1946, American.  The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

 

 

Like a great weight and the small birds cry out

 

 

Birds; 1950; oil on canvas.  Norman Lewis, 1900-1979, American.  On exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2015 courtesy of Kara and Wayne Fingerman

 

And bear it up

 

 

Countless Upward; and detail; 1959; crayon, ink and watercolour on paper.   Norman Lewis, 1900-1979, American.  On exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in  2015.  Private Collection, Cleveland

 

 

 

I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there – that is living.

Brothers Karamazov, 1880.   Fyodor Dostoyevsky