The Music In It: Adele Kenny's Poetry Blog: Thanksgiving Poems

Showing posts with label Thanksgiving Poems. Show all posts

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Prompt #344 – Gratitude is the Heart’s Memory

Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Thursday, November 28^th, which just happens to be my birthday this year. I can remember how excited I was as a child when the two special days coincided. These days, I think more about the things for which I’m thankful.

Thanksgiving has a long history beginning in 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is considered the first Thanksgiving celebration. That feast lasted three days and, according to attendee Edward Winslow, it was 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims participated. For over 200 years, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1827, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale began a campaign to establish thanksgiving as a national holiday. Finally, in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln set the last Thursday in November as the official day for a national Thanksgiving observance. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week, and in 1941 Roosevelt signed a bill that designated the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

In Canada, Thanksgiving (sometimes called Canadian Thanksgiving to distinguish it from the American holiday) is an annual Canadian holiday that occurs on the second Monday in October to celebrate the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

Other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving include Germany (a Harvest Thanksgiving Festival in early October), Grenada (on October 25^th), Korea (in late September or early October), Japan on November 23^rd), Liberia (on the first Thursday of November), and Norfolk Island located east of Australia (during the 1800s, an American trader brought the feasting tradition to Norfolk Island, and the custom has been continued).

Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” Gratitude is a developmental emotion, and books have been written on the psychology of gratitude. There are times in our lives when we feel more Grinch than grateful, especially when the stresses of every day living gather momentum and all but overwhelm us. However, acknowledging and expressing our gratitude can have a beneficial effect on our lives, relationships, and work.

A French proverb tells us, “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” Our first step in writing for this prompt will be to remember—to look into our memories and to identify a single thing for which we’re especially grateful.

Guidelines:

Make a list of things for which you’re grateful.

Choose one item from the list.

Free write about the item you chose.

Review your free write and select images and details for your poem.

Draft your poem.

As you write, think about the reasons for your gratitude and show (without telling) what those feelings really mean.

Examples:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20492

“Thanks” by W. S. Merwin

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19623

“Thanksgiving Letter from Harry” by Carl Dennis

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19276

“The Thanksgivings” by Harriet Maxwell Converse

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19274- list

Poems for Thanksgiving at Poets.Org

Happy Thanksgiving!

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Prompt #298 –Gratitude

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

— Meister Eckhart

Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving will be celebrated this coming week on Thursday, November 23rd. This year our Thanksgiving coincides with Japan’s Kinrō Kansha no Hi, a national public holiday celebrated every year on November 23. Derived from ancient harvest festival rituals named Niinamesai, its modern meaning is more a celebration of hard work and community involvement, translated as Labor Thanksgiving Day. Other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving include Germany (first Sunday of October, essentially a harvest festival that offers thanks for a good year and good fortune) and Canada (Parliament made it a national holiday in 1879, declaring in 1957 that the holiday would be observed yearly, "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed—to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October"). Grenada, Liberia, and The Netherlands also hold Thanksgiving celebrations.

Thanksgiving in the United States has a long history beginning in 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is considered the first Thanksgiving celebration. For over 200 years, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1827, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale began a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Finally, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set the last Thursday in November as the official day for a national Thanksgiving observance. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week, and in 1941 Roosevelt signed a bill that designated the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

Whether we set aside a day for national thanksgiving or make being truly grateful a part of our everyday lives, it’s important to remember that being grateful for what we have now and have had in the past can make us feel better about ourselves, our lives, and our relationships.

Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” There are times in our lives when we may feel more Grinch than grateful, especially when the stresses of every day living gather momentum and all but overwhelm us. However, acknowledging and expressing our gratitude can have a beneficial effect on our lives, relationships, and work.

What are you grateful for? This week let’s write about a specific thing for which we’re grateful. A French proverb tells us, “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” Our first step in writing this week will be to remember—to look into our memories and to identify a single thing for which we’re especially grateful.

Guidelines:

1. Make a list of things for which you’re thankful. Think in terms of people, health, work—all the things that are good in your life.

2. Choose one item from the list.

3. Free write about the item you chose.

4. Look at your free write and select images and details for your poem.

5. Draft your poem.

Tips:

1. Your poem may be stichic (one stanza with no line breaks), it may be a formal poem, a prose poem, or your poem may take the form of prayer or a letter.

2. As you write, think about the reasons for your gratitude and show (without telling) what those feelings mean.

3. Dig deeply to reach beyond the specifics of your personal experience to the underlying universal subject with which your readers will identify. In other words, in this poem, move toward something larger than your personal experience.

4. You might address or dedicate your poem to a person for whom you're thankful.

5. Another possibility is to approach the flip side and write about a challenging time (or a time of adversity) that somehow led you to feelings of gratefulness (my mom used to say that good always comes from bad).

Examples:

In the United States, November is National Native American Heritage Month, with that in mind (and considering the tradition of our first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims and Indians), this example is a poem translated from a traditional Iroquois prayer.

“The Thanksgivings” by Harriet Maxwell Converse

We who are here present thank the Great Spirit that we are here to praise Him.
We thank Him that He has created men and women, and ordered that
these beings shall always be living to multiply the earth.
We thank Him for making the earth and giving these beings its products to live on.
We thank Him for the water that comes out of the earth and runs for our lands.
We thank Him for all the animals on the earth.
We thank Him for certain timbers that grow and have fluids coming from them for us all.
We thank Him for the branches of the trees that grow shadows for our shelter.
We thank Him for the beings that come from the west, the thunder and lightning that water the earth. We thank Him for the light which we call our oldest brother, the sun that works for our good.

Additional Examples:

“Thanks” by W. S. Merwin

“Te Deum” by CharlesReznikoff

“Thanksgiving Letter from Harry” by Carl Dennis

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Prompt #268 – Remember and Give Thanks

Thanksgiving will take place this coming week and is a day set aside here in the United States (other countries have similar days) to remember and give thanks—it's a time when families and friends gather, a celebration of sharing, community, and gratitude.

For this prompt, I invite you to write a poem about something for which you are grateful. It’s so easy to fall into the habit of grumbling about what we don’t have, miss, need, etc., that this is a great time to take a step back and acknowledge the gifts and blessings that we have in our lives. Instead of focusing on deficits, let’s focus on abundances.

A form that lends itself to this prompt is the kyrielle. Once very popular, the kyrielle originated in France, dates to the Middle Ages, and takes its name from kyrie (found in many Christian liturgies). Many hymn lyrics were written in this form, but kyrielle content is not limited to religious subjects. A traditional kyrielle is often short, octosyllabic (each line contains eight syllables), and is typically presented in four-line stanzas. A traditional kyrielle also contains a refrain (a repeated line, phrase, or word) at the end of each stanza.

Guidelines:

1. Begin by thinking about things for which you're grateful. Think in terms of particulars and details—not ideas, but specifics (i.e., not love, but an example of love that you've known; not friendship, but a particular friend).

2. Think of places in which you've been especially thankful (the “geography of thanks”). Think of the people who were part of the story.

3. Write a few ideas for “thankful” refrains (repeated line, phrase, or word) before you begin writing the poem. You may want to use this refrain in your poem.

4. Write a quatrain (four-line stanza) about a particular thing for which you're thankful. Each line should contain eight syllables. If you wish, you may create a rhyme scheme. The last line, phrase, or word in your first stanza will become your refrain.

5. You may write about one thing for which you're grateful, or each quatrain may be about individual things that have inspired your gratitude.

Tips:

1. Remember that with all formal poems nowadays, it is vital that the form does not “drive” your poem. If the form begins to feel forced or unwieldy, you may switch to something less deliberate (i.e., free verse, prose poem).

2. There is no limit to the number of stanzas a kyrielle may have, but three is the generally accepted minimum. So … your poem should be at least three stanzas long.

3. Try to work with a rhyme scheme —a good way to exercise your poetic muscles. However, if rhyming isn’t your thing, go with what works best for you.

4. The kyrielle is exceptionally versatile, and you can have a lot of fun experimenting with this prompt. Just keep in mind that the theme and tone of your poems should be thankfulness.

5. If the kyrielle doesn’t appeal to you, feel free to write your “thankful” poem in any form that you wish!

Example:

Kyrielle by John Payne (1842-1916)

A lark in the mesh of the tangled vine,

A bee that drowns in the flower-cup's wine,

A fly in sunshine,--such is the man.

All things must end, as all began.

A little pain, a little pleasure,

A little heaping up of treasure;

Then no more gazing upon the sun.