William Heyen – Ⅱ

 To William Merwin 

 

 

 

 

who evokes in me the oriole

far from me though near

who evokes in me those years

when my father was with me

 

all those mornings I’d rouse up

to free Buster who ran

Nesconset fields with me

when my older brother was with me

 

as now when I sometimes see

the oriole though far from those

now receding from me

from when their souls had body

 

this morning from the ash tree

I heard its song William’s e

singing within me of eternity

his gift then & now to me