'Thank You. Thank Everything'

I happened to be reading the poet-historian Robert Conquest when a friend called to tell me her troubles – health, romance, job, the usual life distresses. She’s not by nature a whiner so I listened, seldom interrupting. Her manner resembles my own – articulating a problem, then apologizing as she skirts self-pity, then moving on to the next complaint. Some of us still loath an emotional wallow. 

Conquest published his poetry collection Between Mars and Venus in 1962. “On the Middle Thames” is a lovely poem of celebration, perhaps appropriate for Easter, though Conquest does not mention the event. The poem concludes:  

 

“— Life finds its way to sing

Beyond all self, all sense:

This mere experience,

This chime of the most real.

Thank you. Thank everything.”