The poet and editor Emily Fragos introduces the new Pocket Poets volume on gratitude with the notion that expressing gratitude is not only joyful and celebratory; it necessarily involves paying homage to what is lost, recognizing hurt, and accepting the unfathomable. From Elizabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" to Adam Zagajewski's "Try to Praise the Mutilated World," we see the full range of poetry's capacity to give thanks. In the two cases below, an Englishwoman and a Korean man of letters speak from different centuries about one universal subject of our gratitude: our friends.

Friendship Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. Dinah Maria Craik (1826–87)

Sitting at Night A quiet valley with no man's footprints, An empty garden lit by the moon. Suddenly my dog barks and I know A friend with a bottle is knocking at the gate. Om Ui-gil (17th Century) Tr. Kim Jong-gil

More on this book and author: Learn more about Poems of Gratitude. Browse other books in the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series. Visit our Tumblr to share this poem and peruse other poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series. To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.

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