Minnesota Thanksgiving
by John Berryman from Collected Poems: 1937 to 1971
For that free Grace bringing us past great risks
& thro' great griefs surviving to this feast
sober & still, with the children unborn and born,
among brave friends, Lord, we stand again in debt
and find ourselves in the glad position: Gratitude.
We praise our ancestors who delivered us here
within warm walls all safe, aware of music,
likely toward ample & attractive meat
with whatever accompaniment
Kate in her kind ingenuity has seen fit to devise,
and we hope--across the most strange year to come--
continually to do them and You not sufficient honour
but such as we become able to devise
out of decent or joyful conscience & thanksgiving.
Yippee!
Bless then, as Thou wilt, this wilderness board.
© 1989 Kate Donahue Berryman
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I wish I had read this poem before Thanksgiving Day. I was the designated pray-er, and I would have used it to shake up the prayer circle.
ReplyDeletenice.
ReplyDeleteyes...I am kind and full of ingenuity...
but not kind enough to have been reading or commenting your blog...sorry.