Since I think I this poem is perfect, and needs no perfection either in thought or how it is written, I can only add my version of it following Merwin's poem.

The Nomad Flute

You that sang to me once sing to me now
let me hear your long lifted note
survive with me
the star is fading
I can think farther than that but I forget
do you hear me

stillness climbs
filling detrius daydream
touch the window
misted in its corners
and the sink
awakes in shadows
with another perfect
faucet drop

Monumentally momentary bubbles,
In the isolated deserts of time,
The sands time erupts,
In its due course,
As the sun paves its path as usual

a thousand rainbows, a thousand days
not one of them without you
not much pillow talk
that isn't a funerary dirge
motivational tapes
gestating in leaves yet to unfurl
their victories

APOCALYPSE: PARTS 1 AND 2

AFFLICTION

The raging battles reached villages and towns
and so we ran across meadows of grain
once dense and high
now blackened by rains of fire
suddenly I felt a bullet in my spine
and could taste the metal
as the poison reached my brain
others fell beside me of the same affliction
but nothing of it was spoken
for each man’s pain is greater than another’s

Let it come
let it come
there's nothing can stop me
you lousy bum

Your threats and lies are fatuous cries
for help in your own ineptitude
so come my way
I'll have my say
it might not even hurt,
though chances are
my answers curt
will cos you pause
and that's because

you have nothing to give.
Yet I love you,
as I love a harmless bunny showing fangs
and your toothless harangues

The best poems are those,
Which are not understood,
By normal human beings
Readers take a life time,
Trying to solve the puzzle,
What did the poet really mean?

A sudden spurt of ideas ensues
And
Critiques earn their dues,
Trying to resolve
And
Take credit,
For what little they themselves know

I grasp my cow, it's tiny scow
so when we think, despite the sink
you grow your toes, in desperate throes
and try to make a disk of it

If when we turn, without a burn
and tackle every scullery
we skip on vile skullduggery
and that's a daisy's mis-turn

I grab your foot, without a thought
and try to make it relevant
so give up verse, and then traverse
Some broken glass,
and raise an undead revenant

ON EAGLE'S WINGS

Once I was made of steel
my voice was strong , my spirit bold
my visions clear.

I soared blue skies on eagle’s wings
seeking worlds unknown to imagination
my songs were the power of creation—
my death and my resurrection

On this road we've come to crash
did you really think we'd last?
we've still got a chance
and i'm fighting but i'm losing

they said we'd never get this far
now just look at where we are
do you want to prove them right?
it's too confusing

would you do it all again?
are you ready for me yet?
tell me you're not over this
no more than a friend

your arms hold little room to breathe
distant fingers strangle me
of all these answers
none are right