Gratititude

We have had friends stay with us this weekend, with their two little children--4 1/2 years and 10 months. How glorious to have the house filled with little voices, and how grateful I am for the voices of my own children as we laugh and talk at dinner time. So tonight a poem to mark all that there is to feel grateful for, when the earth doesn't move, and the bombs don't explode, and there is peace and the scent of crepes and the laughing of children of all ages.

 

Gratitude

by Anna Kamienska

A tempest threw a rainbow in my face

so that I wanted to fall under the rain

to kiss the hands of an old woman to whom I gave my seat

to thank everyone for the fact that they exist 

and at times even feel like smiling

I was greateful to young leaves that they were willing

to open up to the sun

to babies that they still

felt like coming into this world 

to the old that they heroically

endure until the end

I was full of thanks

like a Sunday alms-box

I would have embraced death

if she'd stopped nearby

Gratitude is a scattered 

homeless love