For an Undersea Library. From Jim Higgins’ weblog: “A salesman for Borders who had recently started calling on Navy bases in Puget Sound asked the poet
W.S. Merwin what books he should recommend to the crews and captains of Trident submarines (with their
nuclear weapons), which have small libraries frequently visited by the sailors during their months at sea:

He asked Merwin:

Could any poem, novel or short story cause anyone to interrupt their learned sequence of actions, once
they have been ordered to launch? What words do I hope these men have read, and thought of, before
they push buttons?

Merwin took his questions seriously. In an essay in the May/June 2001 issue of American Poetry Review,
Merwin chooses five books and five poems, and explaining his reasons for each. He made a point of
choosing works that are fairly modern, making them accessible to contemporary readers.” [thanks, Higgy]