For the next several installments of The Poetry Lab, we asked a few writers who have appeared in The Green Room to share their favorite W.S. Merwin poems….
My Favorite W.S. Merwin Poem – Dr. Abraham Verghese
These are the last four lines of my favorite poem by William Merwin, “To the Surgeon Kevin Lin.” This poem spoke to me medically when I first read it. Over the years, especially after he read it for us during a visit to San Antonio, it has become one I never tire of re-reading—for the simplicity and eloquence of the gratitude he expresses after serious surgery.
…
at home after a night’s rain as
the first sunlight touches the drops
at the tips of the leaves I owe
you the sight of morning
Abraham Verghese is Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and a fierce advocate for bedside medicine. His first novel, Cutting for Stone, was on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. His first book, a memoir, My Own Country, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; his second, also a memoir, The Tennis Partner, was a national bestseller. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and in the medical literature. His website link is www.abrahamverghese.com.