To the insects 

Elders

We have been here so short a time

and we pretend that we have invented memory 

We have forgotten what it is like to be you

who do not remember us. 

We remember imagining that what survived us

would be like us

and would remember the world as it appears to us

but it will be your eyes that fill with light

we kill you again and again

and we turn inutile you

eating the forests 

eating the earth and water 

dang dying of them

departing from ourselves

leaving you the morning 

          in its antiquity.
~The Rain In The Trees Poems by W.S.Merwin 1988

I’ve read three of his poetry books this weekend. I find it fascinating to see how his work has evolved