We’re back again—this time with the Fall/Winter issue of Scapegoat. We have a great
group of poets, some familiar to you and some new.
Thanksgiving has just passed and it seems like a good time to note what we are all
thankful for in our lives--how fortunate most of us are as our thoughts and prayers go out
to many people who have lost so much recently from the Hurricane.
I was looking around for a poem with the theme of gratitude and found the following
excerpt from Sam Hamill:
Best, June
Lives of a Poet:
A Letter to Gary Snyder
Nearly forty years
have passed since Kenneth Rexroth
introduced me to
the mountains and rivers of
your poems, the campfire light
flickering softly
across
a page of Milton,
animal shadows
and wide, wise innocent eyes
observing from the darkness…
What I want to say,
what I have struggled to say
in this poem, is
that you have been a master
and model, a friend and sage
for those who follow
And if I may paraphrase:
That’s what a poet
is—one who recognizes
sacramental relationships.
That is the real work—
reading books or bucking wood
or washing babies—
attentive lives all our days:
the real joy is gratitude.
— First two stanzas & last three stanzas