Present company

the long version

"In this new work from one of America's foremost poets, W.S. Merwin guides readers to universal themes through worldly specifics. Similar in tone and effect to Pablo Neruda's Elemental Odes, every poem in Present Company directly address the human encounters and ordinary objects of daily life, as in "To the Face in the Mirror" or "To Salt."" "These poems to the world are fully engaged with living, are serious yet playful, inspiriting and full of wonder. Merwin recasts the particulars of the personal, and makes them profoundly universal. Whether writing of an imaginary vehicle in "To Zbigniew Herbert's Bicycle" or watching fireworks from a distance in "To the Coming Winter," his poems create a rare and compelling intimacy."--Jacket.