Sunday, November 28, 2021

2021.11.29 Thanksgiving Poem

THANKSGIVING POEM


Another report from overseas

in the day’s news about

a jailed reporter

of some government’s opposition.


Someone on a street corner

hauled off by the police.

The weather there in that country

on that day was beautiful.


So it looked

in the picture. Here

where I am it is dusk, raw

and drizzly from the day’s rain.


The group of us 

in the town square

hold up our placards and wave

to the rush-hour traffic.


Whether our candidate 

wins or not is only slightly

more important than the fact

that here we are


and that when we are done

we will each go home,

change out of our damp clothes,

and have a little warm supper. 


© Carole-Jean Smith



Does this brief poem depress you, or does it give you hope? I don’t know exactly, other  than I just like this poem and its down-to-earth solidity. It seems so obvious and true that we each and all do whatever we can do, where we are, for causes and candidates—and it is enough.  The one consistent inner activity is prayer—daily conversations with God all day long—heaved forth like energetic blasts of hope. 




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