Poem-A-Day: Thanks by W. S. Merwin

November 28, 2013 Thanks by W. S. Merwin 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        From Migration: New & Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Copyright © 1988 by W. S. Merwin. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  Most Recent Book by Merwin   The Collected Poems of W. S. Merwin (Library of America, 2013)            Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.    Photo credit: Matt Valentine    W. S. Merwin is the author of numerous books of poems, including The Collected Poems of W. S. Merwin (Library of America, 2013). He is a former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and lives in Hawaii. Related Poems For the Twentieth Century by Frank Bidart A List of Praises by Anne Porter  Thanksgiving Letter from Harry by Carl Dennis  __________________________ Rae Armantrout is the judge for the 2014 Walt Whitman first book award. Submit your manuscript online. Deadline: December 1.     Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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