Poem in Thanks

By Thomas Lux
Lord Whoever, thank you for this air I'm about to in- and exhale, 
this hutch in the woods, the wood for fire, 
the light- both lamp and the natural stuff 
of leaf-back, fern, and wing.
For the piano, the shovel 
for ashes, the moth-gnawed 
blankets, the stone-cold water 
stone-cold: thank you.
Thank you, Lord, coming for 
to carry me here- where I'll gnash 
it out, Lord, where I'll calm 
and work, Lord, thank you 
for the goddamn birds singing!

3 thoughts on “Poem in Thanks

  1. Hi Victoria, I was looking for a specific poem today (which I never found), when I came across Tom Lux’s name and after I read the poem he wrote called The Bitterness of Children, it said he passed away in 2017. And I thought wow, Tom died… how did I miss that? I took poetry from him in college… and now here he is again on your post, so unexpectedly for me… I figured his ghost was trying to tell me something about my poems. Like, do better! He was a hard teacher, in that he’d shred our work to make us work it out. Not that you needed my long story-short, but thanks for sharing his work. He was the best poetry teacher I ever had or ever will have to be sure. It’s meaningful to see him here.

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