Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Poem In Your Pocket Day tomorrow. Today: "Thanks".

And my thanks to the wonderful Jackie of Jackie Is Reading for offering this poem not only to us bloggers but to her entire school!  She performed it in honor of National Poetry Month, and blogged about her experience as well as all the other actions she's taken on poetry's behalf this month.

I hope you'll consider stopping by tomorrow to join us with your own contribution for our Poem In Your Pocket Day Challenge.

And, no, you don't have to sign up, nor must you have a blog or website, in order to participate!  Just stop on by, post your poem, and invite your friends to do the same.   Then hop around blissfully gathering word-bouquets from around the world.



MFB,  and looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!
L

Here it is:

Thanks

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

                                 - W. S. Merwin
From Migration: New & Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Copyright © 1988 by W. S. Merwin. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

p.s.  Bonus for Pocket Poem Participants:  If you email me (actionreaders@gmail.com) or sign up as a member & then join our group at ActionReaders.com, I'll enter you to win one of the two stellar poetry collections pictured above.

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