“There are aspects of human life that are not purely destructive, and there is a need to pay attention to the things around us while they are still around us. And you know, in a way, if you don't pay that attention, the anger is just bitterness.” IfsKnowsWayNeedsHumansStillsPayAttentionAspectPay AttentionHuman LifeDestructiveBitterness Author:W. S. Merwin
“Politically it would be terribly repressive to prevent people from having as many children as they want. But something's got to prevent it; and it won't be pleasant... We're still behaving in ways that have become disastrous... I don't think this helps us to survive... We're very species-centric... and now exist at the expense of every other form of life on Earth.” PeopleThinkingWayWantChildrenStillsHelpingWould BeEarthFormSpeciesPleasantExpenses Author:W. S. Merwin
“If you can't bear what's happening to the natural world, if you can't bear the way we treat each other; if you can't bear wars, you just can't bear the whole idea of war, which is possibly unavoidable. But still, you resist it. Because you just hate our treating each other that way and causing that suffering.” IfsWorldWayStillsIdeasWarWholeSufferingHateNaturalBearsHappeningsTreatsNatural World Author:W. S. Merwin
“Sitting over words Very late I have heard a kind of whispered sighing Not far Like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark The echo of everything that has ever Been spoken Still spinning its one syllable Between the earth and silence.” KindStillsEarthNightDarkSilenceHeardSeaWindLateSittingEchoesSpinningUtteranceSyllables Author:W. S. Merwin
“I think there's a kind of desperate hope built into poetry that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time.” ThinkingWorldWantTryingKindSaidStillsBuiltDesperateOne LoveSave The World Author:W. S. Merwin
