We really look forward to being in Cape Cod on Thanksgiving with large numbers of children and grandchildren. Still, I think the shadow of poverty, war, disease and grief surely crosses every Thanksgiving table. Still, as James Crews writes in his poem, when we can’t celebrate, we have fooled ourselves into believing that we only deserve safety and comfort. Rekord-Eagle / Jan-Michael Stump
The real story of Thanksgiving isn’t a Norman Rockwell painting. What likely happened is that in the fall of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Pilgrims celebrated their first successful harvest by firing cannons and cannons. The noise alarmed the ancestors of the contemporary Wampanoag nation, who went on a search.
The holiday itself was instigated by a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of an influential women’s magazine, who in 1863 convinced President Lincoln that a national Thanksgiving holiday would help unite a country torn by civil war.
This is how the natives came for the first Thanksgiving, says Ramona Peters, monument conservator of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe.
“The Wampanoag people, men, weren’t really sure what they were being told, so they stayed for a few days. They camped outside, ”says Peters. “So there was also a lot of tension, all these men, warriors, were nearby in the woods next door at night in the dark.”
But what actually happened seems to be less important than what Crews writes in his poem: that we unwrap our lives like a gift. No matter what is inside, there is reason to be grateful. Just being alive is a gift. It seems appropriate to take a day to highlight this fact.
I tend to shy away from poetry that tells me how to feel instead of letting me feel it straight out of the poem. This one, however, allows me to step into his speaker’s life, with the cold scratching of the chair, the room heating (obviously not a palace, here!), The tired neighbors worrying about working with their coffee and their coffee in the cold. It is precisely these images that help the speaker remember to be grateful for this life. When there’s nothing left to be thankful for – and apparently the speaker’s life hasn’t had much to offer lately – there’s always the scent of tangerine on your fingers long after you’ve peeled it.
Traverse City’s Fleda Brown is a professor emeritus at the University of Delaware and a former Delaware poet award winner. You can find more information about her work at www.fledabrown.com. To sign up for their bi-monthly Wobbly Bicycle blog, contact them on their website.
James Crews is the author of The Book of What Stays (University of Nebraska Press, 2011). He was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri.
News highlights business
- About poetry: gratitude is a state of mind, not money | news
- Check out all the news and articles from the business news updates.
Disclaimer: If you need to update / edit this article please visit our Help Center. For the latest updates, follow us on GÖÖGle news
