A boy—age six?—arms full of books—is asking. The library is closing. We’re in line. “Some birds don’t mind the cold,” a woman answers. “They have warm nests. Their feathers keep them warm.” The boy ...

The poet W. S. Merwin wrote a lot about birds: birds singing, birds dying, birds “whirled in a rising cloud … dissolving, streamering out.” This poem, “Shore Birds,” was included in Merwin’s 2005 ...