Thank you, My Fate

tags: Thank you, My Fate, Anna Swir, poetry, National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me). My poetry suggestions are starting to run dry, which means I can start posting my own favorites (but you've seen many of those already) or you can send me your favorite poems, which I probably haven't read before!

Today's poem was suggested by a reader, Suzanne;

Thank you, My Fate

Great humility fills me,
great purity fills me,
I make love with my dear
as if I made love dying
as if I made love praying,
tears pour
over my arms and his arms.
I don't know whether this is joy
or sadness, I don't understand
what I feel, I'm crying,
I'm crying, it's humility
as if I were dead,
gratitude, I thank you, my fate,
I'm unworthy, how beautiful
my life.

-- Anna Swir, Translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan. A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry edited by Czeslaw Milosz (Harvest Books; 1998).