James Merrill
This is one of my favorite poems — and it stands among the very few that I have committed to memory. It strikes me as a perfect description of the craft of poetry … the study of which has profoundly influenced my work.
“Hans, there are moments when the whole mind
Resolves into a pair of brimming eyes, or lips
Parting to drink from the deep spring of a death
That freshness they do not yet need to understand.
These are the moments, if ever, an angel steps
Into the mind, as kings into the dress
Of a poor goatherd, for their acts of charity.
There are moments when speech is but a mouth pressed
Lightly and humbly against the angel’s hand.”
