THANK YOU FOR SAYING THANK YOU
(Charles Bernstein)
This is a totally accessible poem.
There is nothing in this poem that is in any way difficult to understand.
All the words are simple & to the point.
There are no new concepts, no theories, no ideas to confuse you.
This poem has no intellectual pretensions.
It is purely emotional.
It fully expresses the feelings of the author: my feelings, the person speaking
to you now.
It is all about communication.
Heart to heart.
This poem appreciates & values you as a reader.
It celebrates the triumph of the human imagination amidst pitfalls & calamities.
This poem has 90 lines, 269 words, and more syllables than I have time to count.
Each line, word, & syllable have been chosen to convey only the intended meaning
& nothing more.
This poem abjures obscurity & enigma.
There is nothing hidden.
A hundred readers would each read the poem in an identical manner & derive
the same message from it.
This poem, like all good poems, tells a story in a direct style that never
leaves the reader guessing.
While at times expressing bitterness, anger, resentment, xenophobia, & hints of racism, its ultimate mood is affirmative.
It finds joy even in those spiteful moments of life that it shares with you.
This poem represents the hope for a poetry that doesn't turn its back on
the audience, that doesn't think it's better than the reader, that is committed
to poetry as a popular form, like kite flying and fly fishing.
This poem belongs to no school, has no dogma.
It follows no fashion.
It says just what it says.
It's real.
