Meet your new Poet Laureate

That’s right, we got us a new Poet Laureate, or Poetry Czar, if you prefer. His name is W.S. Merwin, he’s got two Pulitzers to his credit, and he lives in Hawaii. (No word on the status of his birth certificate, but I’m sure Nathan Deal is feverishly researching, even as we speak.)

According to the Washington Post, which is always my go-to source on literary criticism, “Merwin’s poetry makes powerful connections between the sense of self, the elusive transparency of the present moment, the natural world and the numinous beyond.”

I suppose that means no limericks about men from Nantucket. Probably a good thing; we’re better than that as a nation.

Born in New York, educated at Princeton, and a disciple/protege of W.H. Auden, and came to prominence as a harsh critic of the Vietnam War, so I guess it’s good that Poet Laureates don’t have to undergo Senate confirmation hearings.

Anyway, as far as it goes, you could do a lot worse in a Poet Laureate. Congratulations, Mr. Merwin, and good look in your new sinecure.

Here’s some really cool video of Merwin talking about Ezra Pound, learning your own language, and living in the country (he lives on a former pineapple plantation which he’s reforesting, apparently):


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