{"id":11977,"date":"2025-11-26T19:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/w-s-merwins-ode-to-the-defiant-courage-of-gratitude-in-a-broken-world-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T19:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:37:03","slug":"w-s-merwins-ode-to-the-defiant-courage-of-gratitude-in-a-broken-world-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/w-s-merwins-ode-to-the-defiant-courage-of-gratitude-in-a-broken-world-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"W.S. Merwin\u2019s Ode to the Defiant Courage of Gratitude in a Broken World \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"posts\">\n<h2\/>\n<h3 class=\"byline\">By Maria Popova<\/h3>\n<div class=\"entry_content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Migration-Selected-Poems-W-S-Merwin\/dp\/1556592612\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"478\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/migration_merwin.jpg?fit=320%2C478&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"cover alignright size-medium\" alt=\"Thanks: W.S. Merwin\u2019s Ode to the Defiant Courage of Gratitude in a Broken World\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/migration_merwin.jpg?w=335&amp;ssl=1 335w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/migration_merwin.jpg?resize=240%2C358&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/migration_merwin.jpg?resize=320%2C478&amp;ssl=1 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2024\/12\/31\/some-blessings-to-begin-with\/\">bless what is<\/a> simply for being, knowing that none of it had to be. <\/p>\n<p>My recent love affair with artist and poet Rachel H\u00e9bert\u2019s almost unbearably beautiful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2025\/11\/16\/rachel-hebert-thanks\/\"><em>Book of Thanks<\/em><\/a> reminded me of a poem by <strong>W.S. Merwin<\/strong> (September 30, 1927\u2013March 15, 2019), found in his collection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Migration-Selected-Poems-W-S-Merwin\/dp\/1556592612\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Migration: New &amp; Selected Poems<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/migration-new-selected-poems\/oclc\/154704664&amp;referer=brief_results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>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<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Thanks&quot; by W.S. Merwin (read by Maria Popova)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hGguF2FmMJA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>THANKS<\/strong><br \/><em>by W.S. Merwin<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Listen<br \/>with the night falling we are saying thank you<br \/>we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings<br \/>we are running out of the glass rooms<br \/>with our mouths full of food to look at the sky<br \/>and say thank you<br \/>we are standing by the water thanking it<br \/>standing by the windows looking out<br \/>in our directions<\/p>\n<p>back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging<br \/>after funerals we are saying thank you<br \/>after the news of the dead<br \/>whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you<\/p>\n<p>over telephones we are saying thank you<br \/>in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators<br \/>remembering wars and the police at the door<br \/>and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you<br \/>in the banks we are saying thank you<br \/>in the faces of the officials and the rich<br \/>and of all who will never change<br \/>we go on saying thank you thank you<\/p>\n<p>with the animals dying around us<br \/>taking our feelings we are saying thank you<br \/>with the forests falling faster than the minutes<br \/>of our lives we are saying thank you<br \/>with the words going out like cells of a brain<br \/>with the cities growing over us<br \/>we are saying thank you faster and faster<br \/>with nobody listening we are saying thank you<br \/>thank you we are saying and waving<br \/>dark though it is<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Couple with Billy Collins\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2020\/11\/25\/billy-collins-as-if-to-demonstrate-an-eclipse\/\">ode to gratitude<\/a>, then revisit Albert Camus, writing in the middle of a world war, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2024\/06\/22\/albert-camus-world\/\">how to live whole in a broken world<\/a>, and Oliver Sacks, writing at the event horizon of death, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2015\/11\/24\/oliver-sacks-gratitude-book\/\">the deepest measure of gratitude<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maria Popova It is not easy, in these lives haunted by loneliness and loss, menaced by war and heartbreak, witness to genocides and commonplace [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}