Poet W. S. Merwin to read on Oct. 13

Separation Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. – W.S. Merwin

Pulitzer prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin has been writing for about 50 years, not only poetry, but also essays and translations. As the Peters Rushton Visiting Writer at U.Va., he will read from his work at 8 p.m. in the Wilson Hall auditorium on Oct. 13.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, he began writing hymns at the age of five. Well-known for his anti-Vietnam stance, he also speaks for nature and his adopted homeland of Hawaii. Merwin’s recent poetry is perhaps his most personal, arising from deeply held anti-imperialist, pacifist and environmentalist beliefs. Of some 30 books, his latest are “Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001,” a new book of poems, “Present Company” and the memoir, “Summer Doorways.”