Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin's "Remembering Summer" is Not Reminiscent of NYC's Summer

American Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin was born in 1927 in NYC but moved to the PA countryside as a young boy where he fell in love with the expansive bucolic surroundings.  Merwin received the Putlize Prize for Poetry in1971 and 2009.  He is also a recipient of the Nat'l Book Award for Poetry.  I spotted his poem "Remembering Summer" on the subway as part of the MTA Poetry series.  It  ironically calls to mind the missing spring season here in the city where a relentless winter never released its hold and spring was damp and cold.  Our city's summer season which doesn't officially arrive until the 21st is still a slow go to warmer days & balmy nights.  "Remembering Summer" seems drawn from Merwin's fond memories of rural summertime and sheds a little light on brighter days ahead.

                       "Remembering Summertime" by W. S Merwin

Being too warm the old lady said to me it is better than being told cold.
I think now in between is the best because you never give it a thought but it goes by too fast.  {spring sprung too rapidly}
I remember the winter how cold it got.  {It's still too cold}
I could never get warm wherever I was but I don't remember the summer heat like that, only the long days, the breathing from the rest, the evening with the hens still talking in the lane
and the light getting longer in the valley
The sound of a bell from down there somewhere
I can sit here now still listening to it. {ubiquitous drillings & sirens}

As I ride the subway on a rainy, dreary & cold Sunday in June, I try to look ahead to more clement weather yet to come.  W. S. Merwin said, "Poetry is like making a joke."  The joke has been on all New Yorkers still expecting fairer skies this springtime.