Thursday, November 24, 2011

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "we are saying thank you"

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.

*

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

...because it is the best thing we can do. Happy Thanksgiving to the entire Dissent staff.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous poem. Is it really the "best thing" we can do?

Rebel Girl said...

Good point. Maybe it's just a start...

Anonymous said...

I'm very grateful for this amazing blog, with its wonderful poetry and gadfly stirrings and hilarious humor and fantastic play-list and brilliant graphics and dead-on appeals to conscience and indispensable news. It brings me into the world and awakens me for another day of work, as it just did for the thousandth time, today. Thank you.

MAH

Anonymous said...

Here we are nearing the end of another year. The org chart is taller, the senate is weaker, the affect is flatter, the pompous are prouder, the processes are pettier, the vocal few are silenced. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Sure, but it could be worse. Without DtB, it would be worse.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...