Conversations with W.S. Merwin ed. by Michael Wutz and Hal Crimmel (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Conversations with W.S. Merwin ed. by Michael Wutz and Hal Crimmel Jason Olsen Michael Wutz and Hal Crimmel, eds. Conversations with W.S. Merwin. U of Mississippi P, 2016. 212pp. When W.S. Merwin died in March 2019, one of the essential American poetic voices of the 20th and 21st century was silenced, but Conversations with W.S. Merwin, edited by Michael Wutz and Hal Crimmel, allows that voice to continue to educate with wisdom, clarity, and beauty. The compilation of interviews spans the years 1956-2012 with topics ranging from his general body of work to spirituality in poetry to his opinions on poets both influential and contemporary, with so many other discussions in between. As Wutz and Crimmel write in their wide-ranging and informative introduction, these interviews show that Merwin is as "intellectually agile face to face as he is on the page." While true, Conversations is far different from his poems and translations; the spontaneity of the interview format allows readers to gain an understanding into the mind behind the work in a way that is otherwise not available. It also provides a comprehensive chronology of the poet's personal and creative life and a definitive bibliography, making it an essential aspect of any serious study of Merwin. The interviews themselves are what truly make the volume special because of both the remarkable diversity of topics and their insight into Merwin's writing and overall thought process. For example, [End Page 95] in "Fact Has Two Faces" conducted by Ed Folsom and Cary Nelson for Iowa Review in 1981, Merwin is asked about his larger body of work. Merwin describes it as "one large book" containing poems that "are not merely disparate pieces with no place in the whole" (47). In a 1984 interview with David L. Elliott, he discusses a progression between his earlier and more current work: "The earlier poems seem to be more distant than what I write now. I wouldn't like to write from such a distance" (101). Much, later, in 2009, he tells Bill Moyers, "I wanted each book to be distinct from the others…And each book was necessary to write the next one. I think they are different. I've always wanted, through all of them, to write more directly, and in a sense, more simply" (174). One of the collection's great assets is how these interviews, much like Merwin's body of work, fit together as a long form view of a life, even if all the pieces, at first glance, do not seemingly fit. It is not contradictory for him to see his body of work as "one large book" and at the same time to see the individual books as disparate from one another. The interviews illustrate an evolution of his process, as defined by his career-long movement away from distance. These conversations further illustrate Merwin's career-long quest for vibrancy and immediacy. When describing his process with John Amen in 2003, Merwin says, "I suppose the constant effort for me is trying to bring what I care about into the words and the writing and the electric charge of language itself, and also to convey a certain immediacy of experience" (151). His articulation of this goal of creating work that is a celebration of "immediacy of experience" with "the electric charge of language" elucidates his poems in a way that seems obvious upon revisiting his creative work, especially when reviewing several books and observing the progressions Merwin acknowledges. Although not required to appreciate Merwin's poems, the interviews unquestionably will expand an appreciation of his process, both in terms of how he views his work and how he views the work of others. Throughout, Merwin is asked about and speaks frankly and passionately about other poets, including teachers and mentors like John Berryman, Ezra Pound, W.H. Auden and Robert Graves, influences like Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau and William Carlos Williams and contemporaries such as Galway Kinnell. This helps shape a larger narrative about Merwin and how he fits into a larger discussion and context, since both his longevity and his creative evolution help serve...