“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
standing 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
taking our 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
thank you
we are saying and waving
dark though it is”
W.S. Merwin
The practices of grief and gratitude seem to us the foundation stones for any possibility we might change the current bleak outlook for our kind – and all the other life we are taking with us as we head towards extinction. Thanks to Vera de Chalambert on Facebook for sharing this on U.S. Thanksgiving Day.
Here’s the book link:-
Palace Gate Counselling Service, Exeter
Counselling in Exeter since 1994
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