Thank You All

A Free Verse Poem of Appreciation

By Graham L. Wilson

Written in gedit 3.4.2 on Fedora 17 and xfce 4.

Copyright (c) 2013 Graham Wilson.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included at this link: see my profile page.

EDIT: And a final big thanks to M.C Queen, who became set to follow me right as I was uploading this! Thanks for that one last smile for the year!

One year ago today,

I made a choice.

A life-changing one,

If I may be so bold.

It was on this day,

Back in ol' 2012,

A year we all survived,

That I first came here,

And so I met you all.

I did not know

What I would find.

I did not know

How I would be found.

I just knew one thing,

That I wanted to get here,

And make my voice heard,

And perhaps myself known.

Now, one year later,

I find the need to thank

All those who responded back

To my lonesome call, and

To all those who hearkened

To my artistic expression:

Prose, poem and essay.

First off, to LeiLei990,

Who first gave me hope

In this whole endeavour.

To my first ever favouriter,

I give my profoundest thanks.

And if I was, perhaps,

A little too talkative then.

Well, now you know why.

A shout out, as well,

To user Kohyru,

For being the first,

And thankfully not only,

To author alert me.

Always nice to know,

That I left an impression.

Thank you for that.

And next, most appreciatively,

I call out to Shelby Jacobs.

For his honest critiques,

His suggestions and advice.

You made me a better writer,

And a more adept person.

Despite our noted differences,

Thanks for showing me

True respect and honour.

Enjoy your declining years.

Yes, now here it is at last,

I come to LeoValdezgirl77.

My first ever real fan,

The one who made me know

That this was all worth it.

Thank you for your praise,

Your attention, and your

Most devoted friendship.

Sorry if I have not had

As much time for you

As you probably deserve.

It was my meek attempts at poetry

That first brought you to me,

And so now, I return the favour

With...yet more poetry! Yay!

Please enjoy Nichole,

As I trust you will. ;-)

Thank you also, Natari Mirumura,

For your own poetry feedback.

May you and Nichole enjoy yourselves.

Oh, and to galileogalilei,

For a most excellent read.

I should actually get around

To reading your other story!

Sorry about that; time flies.

Now here is an strange one.

I call out to RKORadio,

For giving me one of,

No, actually, the oddest

question of my life.

Sorry I could not be more helpful,

But thanks anyway for the chuckle.

And so we come to all of you,

My most welcome smut-lovers,

Who so massively took in

My work on Library Liaison,

And made me think twice

Upon my skills as a writer.

Thanks for the praise on

My attempt at female POV.

So thank you brightteyes,

LillyAnne23, madhu, kikiwriter,

Cura, meowmie, and ajs1972.

Wow, what a sizeable list,

I am almost speechless.

So here, I will just say again:

Thank you, thank you all.

Next up, we reach Amy90,

For first giving light

On how much my words

Can affect other people,

And help them through life.

Best wishes to you,

Your family and young son.

Haben Sie vielen Dank!

Correct me if that is wrong,

I just nicked that off the web.

The feeling though, is true.

And now for you, my ambient Amby,

What should I say to you?

Well, thank you, of course,

But you deserve something more.

You read my works, you gave feedback,

You brought advice and friendship.

And you helped me so much,

Through a difficult period,

Even if you might not know how entirely.

Thanks for the letter, by the way,

And consider this a slight repayment.

You will know what I mean,

While all else can just keep guessing.

I look forward to talking, pondering,

And swapping stories with you

For many more years to come.

From one heartfelt sentiment to another,

I come to you, my dear True Talker.

Never before has anyone, ever,

Shown me as much affection, devotion,

And admiration as you. Thank you, earnestly,

For making me see some of myself,

That you see in me. Our lives may be busy,

But thank you for your continued affections,

And your consistent awe and admiration.

As Le Bon Jack said, in his dying words,

Love is better than anger,

And hope is better than fear,

So keep on being loving and hopeful,

And finally live the life you deserve.

I will endeavour to help you do so,

No matter how fate leads us.

And now for more ambivalent words,

As I come to say thanks to you, InguKaguFan.

I am sorry if our last conversation,

Proved to be far from peaceful,

But let me again state, I hold nothing against you.

Thank you for all your words to me,

Most notably in the very beginning,

When you gave me a much needed boost,

When I feared that others had turned away.

I do not wish for you to turn away now,

As I do not wish to turn away from you,

Even if we may not agree on one crucial point.

What do you say? Well, that is up to you.

No matter what, I will just say: thank you.

Finally, last but not least,

One final shout out to Deserthawk.

Thank you for reading my essay, my article,

And showing your possession of an active,

Inquiring and above all open mind.

Thank you for the invigorating discussions,

That I am sure to get back to, when I can.

Just so you know, its not over yet.

Its not often I can find anyone

Who speaks on the same level as you.

Oh, and one more final,

Thanks to KittyhaZAPhazer

For his review of A Cattle Story.

I apologize for letting my policy

Of thanking all my reviewers

Lapse in your particular case.

Well, that is all that this poem is:

The end fruition of that policy,

For which I have been much praised.

Thanks back at you all, most deeply,

And I hope for more names next year.

Not to diminish all of you, not at all,

Thank you, thank you all.

And now, for an end string of quotations from that other entity that changed my life this past year:

2. Congratulations.
3. Congratulations.
4. Congratulations.
5. Congratulations.
6. Congratulations.
7. Congratulations.
8. Congratulations.
9. Congratulations.
10. Congratulations.
11. Congratulations.
12. Congratulations.
13. Congratulations.
15. Congratulations.
16 & 17. Congratulations.
1. Ah... thank you all.

^ Neon Genesis Evangelion, Episode 26 "Take care of yourself."

Please all do take care of yourselves.

January 11, 2013