FULL THANKS

To and for all those I love – you know who you are

I give full thanks for eyes that see

a ray of sun blinking

through a drifting cloud ears

that hear the loud and mournful cry

of doves waking me

to dawn skin that feels the whisper

touch of dew upon my cheek a tongue that tastes

the brew of grapes a nose that gratefully

breathes in Viburnum playful

on a summer breeze

I give full thanks to every hand that ever

reached for mine for every heart that

ever let me in for every tear I’ve ever shed

for every wound I’ve ever bled for those

I’ve loved who now are dead their breath

exhaled so long ago I know still lingering

on the wind

I give full thanks for living loving

knowing growing going faster

then I should or loitering too long to

let life penetrate my senses pierce my skin

touch me down to bone I give

full thanks to that sweet place that I call

home where every picture on the shelf

or hanging half askew upon the wall recalls

a time a place a face captured in the moment

of a smile but speaks to me of every tear and every

fear and every moment shared in simply trying to

survive the gracious gift of traveling from birth

to death together unrestrainedly alive

I am I know the merest mote of dust blown

casually across the landscape of eternity

yet knowing that

I ‘m thankful to the gods of physics

or of chemistry the tangled mystery

that decides the circumstance of life

and with

each breath I take I venerate

“Whatever gods may be” *

for putting me

in me

*From the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest HJenley