{"id":35431,"date":"2025-11-26T22:38:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T22:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/thanks-w-s-merwins-ode-to-the-defiant-courage-of-gratitude-in-a-broken-world\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T22:38:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T22:38:42","slug":"thanks-w-s-merwins-ode-to-the-defiant-courage-of-gratitude-in-a-broken-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/thanks-w-s-merwins-ode-to-the-defiant-courage-of-gratitude-in-a-broken-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks: W.S. Merwin\u2019s Ode to the Defiant Courage of Gratitude in a Broken World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thanks:<\/a><\/p>\n

It is not easy, in these lives haunted by loneliness and loss, menaced by war and heartbreak, witness to genocides and commonplace cruelties, to live in gratitude. And yet it may be the only thing that saves us from mere survival. In these blamethirsty times, to praise is an act of courage and resistance. To insist on what is beautiful without turning away from the broken. To bless what is<\/a> simply for being, knowing that none of it had to be. <\/p>\n

My recent love affair with artist and poet Rachel H\u00e9bert\u2019s almost unbearably beautiful Book of Thanks<\/em><\/a> reminded me of a poem by W.S. Merwin<\/strong> (September 30, 1927\u2013March 15, 2019), found in his collection Migration: New & Selected Poems<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 a book that lodges itself in the deepest recesses of your soul and stays with you for life.<\/p>\n\n

\n

THANKS<\/strong>
\nby W.S. Merwin<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen
\nwith the night falling we are saying thank you
\nwe are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
\nwe are running out of the glass rooms
\nwith our mouths full of food to look at the sky
\nand say thank you
\nwe are standing by the water thanking it
\nstanding by the windows looking out
\nin our directions<\/p>\n

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
\nafter funerals we are saying thank you
\nafter the news of the dead
\nwhether or not we knew them we are saying thank you<\/p>\n

over telephones we are saying thank you
\nin doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
\nremembering wars and the police at the door
\nand the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
\nin the banks we are saying thank you
\nin the faces of the officials and the rich
\nand of all who will never change
\nwe go on saying thank you thank you<\/p>\n

with the animals dying around us
\ntaking our feelings we are saying thank you
\nwith the forests falling faster than the minutes
\nof our lives we are saying thank you
\nwith the words going out like cells of a brain
\nwith the cities growing over us
\nwe are saying thank you faster and faster
\nwith nobody listening we are saying thank you
\nthank you we are saying and waving
\ndark though it is<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Couple with Billy Collins\u2019s ode to gratitude<\/a>, then revisit Albert Camus, writing in the middle of a world war, on how to live whole in a broken world<\/a>, and Oliver Sacks, writing at the event horizon of death, on the deepest measure of gratitude<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

donating = loving<\/h3>\n

For seventeen years, I have been spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month composing The Marginalian<\/em> (which bore the outgrown name Brain Pickings<\/em><\/a> for its first fifteen years). It has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, no assistant \u2014 a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider lending a helping hand with a donation<\/a>. Your support makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

\n

newsletter<\/h3>\n

The Marginalian<\/em> has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week\u2019s most inspiring reading. Here\u2019s what to expect<\/a>. Like? Sign up.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not easy, in these lives haunted by loneliness and loss, menaced by war and heartbreak, witness to genocides and commonplace cruelties, to live in gratitude. And yet it may be the only thing that saves us from mere survival. In these blamethirsty times, to praise is an act of courage and resistance. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-life"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 15:42:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}