The Time Before
--W. S. Merwin

So this is what happened before I was there to see
.......they were walking over the bare stone carrying
their shoes because it was going to be a long way
.......their day was ringing the barrens in a loud wind
and they were taking their seasons with them as animals
.......through the beating light urging on the sheep of autumn
the pigs of winter the lambs of spring the cows of summer
.......all heading the same way along the rough walls of the lanes
so old that they had no beginnings and no memory
.......their voices and the sounds of their feet flew up from them like
flocks of finches and blew away with all the names that they
.......knew for themselves and were continually saying
and all the words that were what they had then and were what they
.......were saying to each other as they went along and as they
greeted each other when they met where the lanes came
.......together and when they told where they were gong

This poem and the two prior are all found in Merwin’s 1996 publication, Vixen. Not necessarily a recommendation I would make to someone who hasn't already read a book or two from Merwin, but it is a book I would recommend to anyone that has and looking for more. A very unique effort from Merwin that I find myself returning to more than any of the others. Difficult, but what makes it so captivating. Creates a world of its own, one that can only be made through the spell of poetry.