Thanksgiving is a holiday that originated in the United States. We give thanks and acknowledge our blessings. We celebrate through sharing a meal that features the ingredients we associate with the autumn season. We celebrate loved ones, blessings, life. It's also a moment during Native American Heritage Month to lift up indigenous voices and reflect on this long tradition. We have time to convene and reflect on the past— even with loved ones and memories that can be difficult. But in reaching for gratitude and grace, the time can be joyful, too. Prayers, grace, words of gratitude.
Doesn’t it seem like Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday for poetry?
Poems featured in this episode:
"Perhaps the World Ends Here"
by Joy Harjo
From the book The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1994)
"Thanksgiving for Two"
by Marjorie Saiser
(2014)
"Butter"
by Elizabeth Alexander
From the book Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 (Graywolf Press, 2010)
"The Traveling Onion"
by Naomi Shihab Nye
From the book Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. (Far Corner Books,1995)
"Applesauce"
by Ted Kooser
From the book Delights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press, 2004)
"Thanks"
by W.S. Merwin
From the book Migration: New and Selected Poems. (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)
