Poetry Response - To Myself

The title is a very important part of this poem. W.S. Merwin is writing the poem to himself looking back over a continuum of time.
"Even when I forget you
I go on looking for you"
Sometimes he forgets himself, but he always keeps trying to figure out who he is or was.
"I believe I would know you
I keep remembering you
sometimes long ago but then
other times I am sure you
were here a moment before"
He's always remembering his past. Sometimes it seems as if the past was not so far back, but time can pass quickly.
"and the air is still alive
around where you were and I
think then I can recognize
you who are always the same
who pretend to be time but
you are not time and who speak
in the words but you are not
what they say you who are not
lost when I do not find you"
Our past is always still a part of us, people stay the same in some way. Even when he's not thinking about himself, whatever he is is still there.