One of my favourite modern poets has long been W.S. Merwin; and even the fact that in 2010 he was appointed US Poet Laureate couldn't change that. Here is a poem he published in the New Yorker last summer, which I thought moving, and worth passing on.
LEAR’S WIFE
If he had ever asked me
I could have told him
If he had listened to me
it would have been
another story
I knew them before
they were born
with Goneril at my breast
I looked at the world
and saw blood in darkness
and tried to wake
with Regan at my breast
I looked at the world
and covered my mouth
with Cordelia in my arms
at my breast
I wanted to call out to her
in love and helplessness
and I wept
as for him
he had forgotten me
even before they did
only Cordelia
did not forget
anything
but when asked she said
nothing
W.S.
Merwin
New
Yorker
June
25, 2012
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