Welcome back to the Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network. I'm David Kern.

The last two days I've been reading poems by the great W.S. Merwin, who died last week.

Today, I want to read three brief poems that he wrote, three poems that I find particularly mesmerizing of his.

I'm not going to offer too many comments on them

because I have offered comments the last two days on Merwin's work.

I think many of the same thoughts,

at least the generalized thoughts that I was offering the last two days,

apply here.

And I think that these three poems offer a nice little coda

to my sort of sharing of his work.

And then I'll move on to a couple other poets, a couple other classic poets, to my sort of sharing of his work.

And then I'll move on to a couple other poets,

a couple other classic poets,

well-beloved poets on Thursday and Friday.

So this first poem by W.S. Merwin,

it's called Losing a Language.

It came from a collection called The Rain in the Trees,

which was published in 1988.

It goes like this.

A breath leaves the sentences and does not come back,

yet the old still remember something that they could say.

But they know now that such things are no longer believed,

...