Listen "In the Winter of My Thirty-Eighth Year by W. S. Merwin"
Episode Synopsis
It sounds unconvincing to say When I was young
Though I have long wondered what it would be like
To be me now
No older at all it seems from here
As far from myself as ever
Walking in fog and rain and seeing nothing
I imagine all the clocks have died in the night
Now no one is looking I could choose my age
It would be younger I suppose so I am older
It is there at hand I could take it
Except for the things I think I would do differently
They keep coming between they are what I am
They have taught me little I did not know when I was young
There is nothing wrong with my age now probably
It is how I have come to it
Like a thing I kept putting off as I did my youth
There is nothing the matter with speech
Just because it lent itself
To my uses
Of course there is nothing the matter with the stars
It is my emptiness among them
While they drift farther away in the invisible morning
Though I have long wondered what it would be like
To be me now
No older at all it seems from here
As far from myself as ever
Walking in fog and rain and seeing nothing
I imagine all the clocks have died in the night
Now no one is looking I could choose my age
It would be younger I suppose so I am older
It is there at hand I could take it
Except for the things I think I would do differently
They keep coming between they are what I am
They have taught me little I did not know when I was young
There is nothing wrong with my age now probably
It is how I have come to it
Like a thing I kept putting off as I did my youth
There is nothing the matter with speech
Just because it lent itself
To my uses
Of course there is nothing the matter with the stars
It is my emptiness among them
While they drift farther away in the invisible morning
More episodes of the podcast A Paradise of Poems
Unending Love by Rabindranath Tagore
24/09/2023
The Course Of Life by Friedrich Holderlin
24/09/2023
Let It Enfold You by Charles Bukowski
18/09/2023
Final Story by Charles Bukowski
18/09/2023
Clouds and Waves by Rabindranath Tagore
29/08/2023
Writing by Charles Bukowski
29/08/2023
Life is Fine by Langston Hughes
10/07/2023
Australia by A D Hope
15/02/2023
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.