W.S. Merwin: The Breakfast of U.S. Poet Laureate Champions

This guest post comes to us from KCRW’s Connie Alvarez.

I had the pleasure of accompanying

Bookworm’s

Michael Silverblatt to an interview with newly minted U.S. Poet Laureate,

W.S. Merwin. Michael has described Merwin’s poetry as “beautifully evanescent — like memories and dreams that gently fade as they reverberate against newly forming words and memories.” So nice!

But as an occasional Good Foodie, I couldn’t help but wonder what the man ate. What fuels a Poet Laureate’s brain? I confessed this to his wife Paula, and she said, “Blueberries! He loves blueberries in yogurt. And honey, don’t forget the honey. He even wrote a poem about blueberries!”

(keep reading for the poem)

Blueberries After Dark

So this is the way the night tastes

one at a time

not early or late

my mother told me

that I was not afraid of the dark

and when I looked it was true

how did she know

so long ago

with her father dead

almost before she could remember

and her mother following him

not long after

and then her grandmother

who had brought her up

and a little later

her only brother

and then her firstborn

gone as soon

as he was born

she knew