<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; " class=""><div id="poem-top" class="active tab-content" style="display: block; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><h1 style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Berryman</span></font></h1></div><div style="widows: 1;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-transform: uppercase; "><br class=""></span></div><span style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " class=""></span><div id="poem" class="active tab-content" style="display: block; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><div class="poem" style="font-variant: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 25px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">I will tell you what he told me</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">in the years just after the war</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">as we then called</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">the second world war</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">don't lose your arrogance yet he said</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">you can do that when you're older</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">lose it too soon and you may</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">merely replace it with vanity</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">just one time he suggested</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">changing the usual order</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">of the same words in a line of verse</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">why point out a thing twice</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">he suggested I pray to the Muse</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">get down on my knees and pray</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">right there in the corner and he</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">said he meant it literally</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">it was in the days before the beard</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">and the drink but he was deep</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">in tides of his own through which he sailed</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">he was far older than the dates allowed for</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">much older than I was he was in his thirties</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">he snapped down his nose with an accent</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">I think he had affected in England</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">as for publishing he advised me</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">to paper my wall with rejection slips</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">with the vehemence of his views about poetry</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">he said the great presence</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">that permitted everything and transmuted it</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">in poetry was passion</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">passion was genius and he praised movement and invention</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">I had hardly begun to read</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">I asked how can you ever be sure</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">that what you write is really</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">any good at all and he said you can't</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class=""> </div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">you can't you can never be sure</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">you die without knowing</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">whether anything you wrote was any good</div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" class="">if you have to be sure don't write</div></div><div class="credit" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding-top: 24px; "><p class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- W.S. Merwin</p></div></div></body></html>