W.S. Merwin recently won his second Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his book The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon Press). I’ve been reading his work here and there for as long as I’ve been taking poetry seriously, but just last night I watched a truly charming program, a conversation between Bill Moyers and W.S. Merwin about poetry, Merwin’s life and his most recent book. Here are few lovely quotes from the transcript.

Merwin on the origins of poetry:

I believe that poems begin with hearing and with listening. One listens until one hears something.

Merwin on what led him to poetry:

Feeling about the mystery of words. What made a word a word. What made a word express something. And what made a blade of grass come up between the stones of the sidewalk. And when my mother explained that the Earth was under the sidewalk, I had a feeling of great reassurance.

I highly recommend that anyone interested in the world, in the world of words, in genuine thoughtfulness, in humility and wonder, check this program out here.  It’s fabulous.