“Thanks” by W.S. Merwin

W.S. Merwin in his greenhouse on Maui
Credit: Diane Cook & Len Jenshel for Audobon Magazine

Poet W.S. Merwin had much to be thankful for. He began writing hymns at the age of 5, after which he developed a love of languages, obtained a degree from Princeton University and lived around the world in countries including Spain, France and Mexico. He served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2010 to 2011 and was awarded numerous honors, including two Pulitzer prizes and a National Book Award.

Yet despite these worldly accolades, Merwin sustained a close relationship with his loved ones and the earth: He and his wife planted and tended a 19-acre palm forest around their home on the island of Maui, where he died in 2019 at the age of 91. “On the last day of the world,” Merwin once wrote, “I would want to plant a tree.”

His poem “Thanks,” which was published in his 2005 book “Migration: New and Selected Poems,” reads as an expression of gratitude for the bounty of his life. Merwin voices his thanks in an effusive manner that stays consistent whether bowing from bridges, addressing the water or remembering wars. It begins with the simple word “Listen” and goes on to describe a variety of beautiful moments:

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

While the second stanza takes a more somber tone, Merwin doesn’t fail to stop and give thanks amid the darker aspects of life, as well:

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

Merwin’s Love for the Earth Comes Through in “Thanks”

W.S. Merwin was featured in the 2014 documentary “Even Though the Whole World is Burning.”

Merwin became widely recognized not only for his poetry but also as an ecologist and environmentalist. His fellow poet Edward Hirsch told NPR that Merwin’s poems “began to root themselves in the Earth,” and that once Merwin began restoring the rainforest on his land in Hawaii, he “morphed into a poet of praise.” This remained true even when regarding the tragedy of ecological disaster:

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

As we approach the holidays in a year marked by a brutal global pandemic, widespread devastation from tornados in the Midwest, and other major disasters, Merwin’s “Thanks” reminds us that there is still much to be grateful for. You can read the full text of this poem and others by Merwin on the Poetry Foundation’s web page.