Today the Library of Congress announced the appointment of W.S. Merwin as the next Poet Laureate of the United States. In honor of Merwin’s appointment, here is a poem originally published in Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment in 1973 but republished in 2005 in Migration: New and Selected Poems where I first encountered it.

Something I’ve Not Done

Something I’ve not done
is following me
I haven’t done it again and again
so it has many footsteps
like a drumstick that’s grown old and never been used

In late afternoon I hear it come closer
at times it climbs out of a sea
onto my shoulders
and I shrug it off
losing one more chance

Every morning
it’s drunk up part of my breath for the day
and knows which way
I’m going
and already it’s not done there

But once more I say I’ll lay hands on it
tomorrow
and add its footsteps to my heart
and its story to my regrets
and its silence to my compass

I love the way at the beginning it is kind of lighthearted but by the end it weighs so much more. You can feel it growing heavier as you read just as the longer something remains undone the heavier it grows.

And here is Merwin reading his poem “Yesterday” which is sure to make everyone feel at least a little family guilt:

Merwin is a definitely a good choice for Poet Laureate.