WS Merwin's Ode is the courage of gratitude in a broken world – the marginalian

It is not easy, in these lives they are troubled by loneliness and loss, suffered by war and trauma of the heart, to prove the discovery of the race and the decline of common atrocities, to live with gratitude. And yet it can be the only thing that saves us from mere survival. In these times of Blamethirry, praise is an act of courage and resistance. Emphasis on the good without turning away. To bless that which is simply, to know that it does not exist.

My love is the latest love and singer and poet Rachel Hébert's is so beautiful Book of thank you reminded me of a poem by Ws merwin (September 30, 1927-March 15, 2019), found in his collection Migration: New and Selected Poems (public library) – A book that lives in the deepest recesses of your soul and stays with you for life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgguf2fmmja

Interest
by WS merwin

Put an ear
on the night we say thank you
We stand on bridges to pull from trains
We are running out of glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
We are standing with water thank me
Standing with windows facing the outside
In our minds

Back from a series of hospitals back from mugging
After funerals we say thank you
After the stories of the dead
Whether we don't know them or not, we say thank you

The calls say thank you
In doors and in the back of cars and on the roads
Remembering the battles with the police at the door
and being hit on the stairs to say thank you
To the banks we say thank you
in the face of the nobles and the rich
and to all who will never change
We keep saying thank you thank you

and animals die around us
Taking our feelings and saying thank you
Forests fall faster than minutes
of our lives we say thank you
With words that come out like brain cells
It's the cities that grow over us
We say thank you quickly and immediately
with Nobody listening and saying thank you
Thank you We say We say and we wake up
it's dark though

Couples with Ode Odelins by Billy Collins to give thanks, then Revisit Albert Camus, writing in the midst of world war, how to live perfectly in a broken world, and Oliver sacks, writing in a high place about death.