Poetry Unbound: W.S. Merwin — For The Anniversary of My Death

Host: Pádraig Ó Tuama
Release Date: January 16, 2026
Podcast: On Being Studios

Episode Overview

In this episode of Poetry Unbound, Pádraig Ó Tuama takes listeners on a contemplative journey through W.S. Merwin's poem "For The Anniversary of My Death." Ó Tuama intimately explores Merwin’s meditations on mortality, the unmarked passage of time, and the poetic intertwining of the everyday and the existential. Drawing from personal reflections and his own experience staying at Merwin’s home in Maui, Ó Tuama unpacks the Buddhist influences in Merwin’s work, the ecological dimensions of his life, and the poem’s subtle but profound treatment of death.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power and Ritual of Anniversaries

• Personal significance of marking anniversaries:
  Ó Tuama opens by discussing how he notes anniversaries on his calendar—deaths, moves, significant changes—not just as markers of the past, but as ways to bring meaning to the present.

  “It's a marker of time, I suppose, and a way in realizing that it's not just Thursday. It's also five years or one year or 10 years since something happened.” (00:28)

• Anticipatory aspect:
  Time is not only retrospective but also anticipatory; sometimes the looming presence of an anniversary shapes one’s perception of ordinary days.

Encountering Merwin’s Poem

• Introduction of the poem:
  Ó Tuama reads "For The Anniversary of My Death" in full and unhurriedly, both at the start and end of the episode (02:05, 30:55).

• Theme of unknowing:
  The poem is less about the literal date of death, which remains unknown, and more about bowing to the ‘unknowable.’

  “It ends with a reminder of bowing, not knowing, to what. And that, I think, is a really important feature.” (03:20)

• Use of language around death:
  Merwin’s poem neither shies away from nor sugarcoats talk of death, instead applying a gentle, poetic language that neither euphemizes nor sensationalizes the subject.

Poetic Form and Buddhist Influence

• Absence of punctuation as spiritual openness:
  Merwin often dispenses with punctuation, leaving sentences (and thoughts) open-ended—mirroring the poem’s thematic focus on the unknown, emptiness, and silence.

  “No visual imagination about what a sentence’s full stop would look like... It leaves us with the question at the end and the final word. What? What?” (04:18)

• Buddhist undertones:
  Merwin’s lifelong, private Buddhist practice seeps into the poem’s spirit of acceptance and absence of fear.

  “You can see some of the things that would lead him eventually to this deep Buddhist practice.” (05:30)

• Absence of fear:
  Despite facing the anxiety-inducing subject of death, the poem radiates a notable calm and presence rather than anxiety.

Merwin’s Life and Ecology

• Ó Tuama's pilgrimage to Merwin's house:
  Ó Tuama recounts spending three weeks at Merwin’s Maui home—a sanctuary created from once-degraded land—which deepens his experience of the poem.

  “I spent three weeks this last summer at W.S. Merwin's house on Maui. He bought two acres in 1977 on what was called then wasteland. And then over the course of 40 years, he returned 18 acres...to lush rainforest hand planting palms.” (09:37)

• Ecological restoration as poetic act:
  The act of restoring land and cultivating a rainforest is likened to poetry itself.

  “He speaks and implies... that such work is also a poem, that a growing thing, a tree, is a made thing. It is a poem.” (15:52)

• Encountering material traces:
  Ó Tuama describes handling books with personal inscriptions and living among Merwin’s objects, creating a sense of connection between the poet’s life, artistry, and the themes of the poem.

The Poem’s Structure and Performance

• Movement from vastness to immediacy:
  The poem gracefully shifts from existential questions to the minute and tangible details—a wren’s song, the cessation of rain—capturing the largeness of death alongside the particulars of daily life.

  “From the grand, the huge, the existential to the particular...ending with the wren and the beginning of the ending of the falling rain.” (19:47)

• Legacy and continuity through poetry:
  Merwin, knowing his poetry would outlive his body, leaves the image of a wren’s song louder than the bird itself—a metaphor for the endurance of art after life.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the enduring unknown of death:

  “I'd never thought about the day that I'll die until I read this poem. Maybe some people have, but obviously for most of us, we don't know the date.” (03:01)

• On Buddhist influence:

  “He had a lifelong Buddhist practice, which he was quite private about...you can see some of the things that would lead him eventually to this deep Buddhist practice.” (05:25)

• On ecological restoration as poetry:

  “Such work is also a poem, that a growing thing, a tree, is a made thing. It is a poem... And life occurs around that life, insects and growth and the undergrowth that occurs and the mulch that happens when trees fall and relocate themselves into the earth.” (15:40)

• On the poem’s emotional range:

  “This poem is painful for some, I imagine. Maybe it's near an anniversary or maybe, you know, somebody who did choose the date of their own death and you think of how devastating that was and how you wish they hadn't. And Merwin has crafted a poem that is about the bigness of things.” (22:02)

• On the legacy of poetry and the image of the wren:

  “Despite the fact that the wren has such a shorter life than his, W.S. Merwin leaves us with the song of a wren, which is so much louder than you'd imagine from that ping pong ball sized little bird.” (27:06)

Important Timestamps

• 00:02 — Ó Tuama’s personal reflection on anniversaries and marking time
• 02:05 — First reading of "For The Anniversary of My Death"
• 03:01 — Discussion of unknowing and the poem’s open ending
• 05:25 — Buddhist influences and absence of fear
• 09:37 — Ó Tuama’s residency at Merwin’s Maui home
• 15:40 — Ecological restoration as a poetic act
• 19:47 — Movements in the poem: From existential to the particular
• 22:02 — Acknowledging pain and the poem’s emotional resonance
• 27:06 — The wren as metaphor for poetic legacy
• 30:55 — Final reading of the poem

Episode Tone & Closing Thoughts

Ó Tuama’s voice throughout is gentle, meditative, and deeply respectful of both Merwin’s poem and listeners’ experiences. The tone is thoughtful and open, inviting the audience into both the uncertainties and beauties of mortality, language, and the persistence of poetry and nature.

Listen for

• Rich interweaving of personal story, poetry, and biography
• A warm, accessible guide into Merwin’s poetic world and ecological ethos
• A moving meditation on what it means to live—and write—knowing all is finite, and art (like a wren’s song) endures beyond us

For more episodes, poetry, and discussion, visit poetryunbound.org.