W.S. Merwin

Thanksgiving Break

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The first snow of the season has fallen a couple hours north of Middletown, and as I make my way through leftovers and get ready for the last week of classes, I send best wishes to my fellow-Wesleyans, near and far. 

 

Serving pre-Thanksgiving dinner with colleagues at Usdan

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I sent the following message to campus:

 

 

Do you need a break? I know I am feeling it this year as we head toward Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to taking time with family, to sharing meals, laughs, and expressing gratitude together. I am so thankful for my teachers—people who opened for me worlds of thinking, dreaming, listening, and looking. I am also thankful for my students—people who have questioned my certainties, probed my doubts, and opened themselves up to living more expansive lives, often with deeper purpose. I am thankful for my colleagues here at Wesleyan—co-workers who make our university sing. I draw on my connections to teachers, students, and colleagues for comfort and inspiration.

I also draw on some poets, like the great 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

The poem turns much darker, but I’ll let you read that yourselves. It still speaks gratitude, as does the final section of the lovely Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander:

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

I hope your Thanksgiving celebrations will be filled with mighty love, and that you return to campus refreshed, ready for “walking forward in that light.”  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

“thank you we are saying and waving/dark though it is” – W.S. Merwin

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For many, Thanksgiving is a time of remembrance, and gratitude springs from this remembrance. Here is an excerpt of Joy Harjo’s poem, Remember.

Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
Joy Harjo

The full poem can be found here.

And now I’m reading W.S. Merwin (whom I met many years ago when I invited him to the Getty) as Thanksgiving approaches. Dark times, still thankful.

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 full poem can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving!