Poems of Gratitude (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series) edited by Emily Fragos

For centuries poets in all of the world's cultures have offered eloquent thanks and praise for the people and things of this world. Both an emotion and a conscious practice, gratitude is a cherishing of what is, over what has been or could be. It celebrates the joy in our lives while acknowledging the sorrows and losses that give that joy its keenness. The voices collected here range from Sappho and Horace and Rumi to Shakespeare and Milton, from Wordsworth, Rilke, Yeats, Rossetti, and Hopkins to Czeslaw Milosz, Constantine Cavafy, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Yehuda Amichai, Anne Sexton, Nikki Giovanni, W. S. Merwin, and many more. Devotional lyrics drawn from the major religious traditions of the world offer their perspectives, alongside poetic tributes to autumn and the harvest season that draw our attention to nature's bounty and poignant beauty as winter approaches.