Gratitude in Joy & Sorrow
A poem by Peter Menkin
August 10, 2009

Gratitude I have--
Had--
This sense of acceptance,
Called giving thanks in a praise.
Of words,
And thoughts for God, Creator
And sustainer—
My gratitude for my preservation,
Bringing me to this new day--
As the Prayer goes.

How kind the thought comes
Of the goodness of God, though
Sorrow is our lot.
As is said, “Human condition.”
Contradiction. For sorrow is the daily sense,
The feeling, the experience, the existential
Day that finds the Other.
In gratitude.


Contradiction. Yes, we are in sorrow
Of the body, of the head, of the experience
Of living that at the same time is joy.
That enveloping experience of emotion—
A happiness that is not happiness.

But the mystery of gratitude for
Joy, sense of kind thought and human condition
And thoughts for God, Creator.
As the Prayer goes in Christ.
We are thankful in living for life, the gift;
In gratitude, in gratitude again
For our Creation.
As the prayer goes in Christ.

Audio reading of poem by poet is here: