POEMS

The sound of that relaxed alluring blow, A Thanksgiving Poem Its co-opted and obliterated echo, Paul Laurence Dunbar Taught me to hit, taught me to loosen, Taught me between the hammer and the block The sun hath shed its kindly light, To face the music. Teach me now to listen, Our harvesting is gladly o’er To strike it rich behind the linear black. Our fields have felt no killing blight, Our bins are filled with goodly store. 1 From pestilence, fire, flood, and sword A cobble thrown a hundred years ago We have been spared by thy decree, Keeps coming at me, the first stone And now with humble hearts, O Lord, Aimed at a great-grandmother's turncoat brow. We come to pay our thanks to thee. The pony jerks and the riot's on. She's crouched low in the trap We feel that had our merits been Running the gauntlet that first Sunday The measure of thy gifts to us, Down the brae to Mass at a panicked gallop. We erring children, born of sin, He whips on through the town to cries of 'Lundy!' Might not now be rejoicing thus. Call her 'The Convert'. 'The Exogamous Bride'. No deed of our hath brought us grace; Anyhow, it is a genre piece When thou were nigh our sight was dull, Inherited on my mother's side We hid in trembling from thy face, And mine to dispose with now she's gone. But thou, O God, wert merciful. Instead of silver and Victorian lace, The exonerating, exonerated stone. Thy mighty hand o’er all the land Hath still been open to bestow 2 Those blessings which our wants demand Polished linoleum shone there. Brass taps shone. From heaven, whence all blessings flow. The china cups were very white and big— An unchipped set with sugar bowl and jug. Thou hast, with ever watchful eye, The kettle whistled. Sandwich and tea scone Looked down on us with holy care, Were present and correct. In case it run, And from thy storehouse in the sky The butter must be kept out of the sun. Hast scattered plenty everywhere. And don't be dropping crumbs. Don't tilt your chair. Then lift we up our songs of praise Don't reach. Don't point. To thee, O Father, good and kind; Don't make noise when you stir. To thee we consecrate our days; Be thine the temple of each mind. It is Number 5, New Row, Land of the Dead, Where grandfather is rising from his place With incense sweet our thanks ascend; With spectacles pushed back on a clean bald head Before thy works our powers pall; To welcome a bewildered homing daughter Though we should strive years without end, Before she even knocks. 'What's this? What's this?' We could not thank thee for them all. And they sit down in the shining room together. 3 Clearances When all the others were away at Mass Seamus Heaney I was all hers as we peeled potatoes. They broke the silence, let fall one by one In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984 Like solder weeping off the soldering iron: Cold comforts set between us, things to share She taught me what her uncle once taught her: Gleaming in a bucket of clean water. How easily the biggest coal block split And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes If you got the grain and hammer angled right. From each other's work would bring us to our senses. So while the parish priest at her bedside And rubrics for the blessing of the font. Went hammer and tongs As the hind longs for the streams, so my soul. . . at the prayers for the dying Dippings. Towellings. The water breathed on. And some were responding and some crying The water mixed with chrism and with oil. I remembered her head bent towards my head, Cruet tinkle. Formal incensation Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives— And the psalmist's outcry taken up with pride: Never closer the whole rest of our lives. Day and night my tears have been my bread. 4 7 Fear of affectation made her affect In the last minutes he said more to her Inadequacy whenever it came to Almost than in all their life together. Pronouncing words 'beyond her'.Bertold Brek. 'You'll be in New Row on Monday night She'd manage something hampered and askew And I'll come up for you and you'll be glad Every time, as if she might betray When I walk in the door . . . Isn't that right?' The hampered and inadequate by too His head was bent down to her propped-up head. Well-adjusted a vocabulary. She could not hear but we were overjoyed. With more challenge than pride, He called her good and girl. Then she was dead, she'd tell me, 'You The searching for a pulsebeat was abandoned Know all them things.' And we all knew one thing by being there. So I governed my tongue The space we stood around had been emptied In front of her, a genuinely well- Into us to keep, it penetrated Adjusted adequate betrayal Clearances that suddenly stood open. Of what I knew better. I'd naw and aye High cries were felled And decently relapse into the wrong and a pure change happened. Grammar which kept us allied and at bay. 8 5 I thought of walking round and round a space The cool that came off sheets just off the line Utterly empty, utterly a source Made me think the damp must still be in them Where the decked chestnut tree had lost its place But when I took my corners of the linen In our front hedge above the wallflowers. And pulled against her, first straight down the The white chips jumped hem/And then diagonally, and jumped and skited high. then flapped and shook I heard the hatchet's differentiated The fabric like a sail in a cross-wind, Accurate cut, the crack, the sigh They made a dried-out undulating thwack. And collapse of what luxuriated So we'd stretch and fold, Through the shocked tips and wreckage of it all. and end up hand to hand For a split second as if nothing had happened For nothing had that had not always happened The Peace of Wild Things Beforehand, day by day, just touch and go, Wendell Berry Coming close again by holding back When despair for the world grows in me In moves where I was x and she was o and I wake in the night at the least sound Inscribed in sheets she'd sewn from ripped-out in fear of what my life and my children’s flour sacks. lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake 6 rests in his beauty on the water, In the first flush of the Easter holidays and the great heron feeds. The ceremonies during Holy Week I come into the peace of wild things Were highpoints of ourSons and Lovers phase. who do not tax their lives with forethought The midnight fire. The paschal candlestick. of grief. I come into the presence of still water. Elbow to elbow, glad to be kneeling next And I feel above me the day-blind stars To each other up there near the front waiting with their light. For a time Of the packed church, we would follow the text I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. If what you fear in death Morning in a New Land is punishment beyond this, you need not Mary Oliver fear death: how many times must I destroy my own creation In trees still dripping night some nameless birds to teach you Woke, shook out their arrowy wings, and sang, this is your punishment: Slowly, like finches sifting through dream. The pink sun fell, like glass, into the fields. with one gesture I established you Two chestnuts, and a dapple gray, in time and in paradise. Their shoulders wet with light, their dark hair streaming, El viento despierta, Climbed the hill. The last mist fell away. barre los pensamientos de mi frente Otoño y me suen la luz que sonríe para nadie: Octavio Paz And under the trees, beyond time’s brittle drift, spende I stood like Adam in his lonely garden Autumn ¡cuánta belleza suelta! On the first morning, shaken out of sleep, Otoño: entre tus manos frías Rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves, el mundo llamea. Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift. The wind wakes, sweeps the thoughts from my mind and hangs me A Timbered Choir in a light that smiles for no one: what random beauty! from The Sabbath Poems Autumn: between your cold hands Wendell Berry the world flames.

Whatever is foreseen in joy Must be lived out from day to day. Selections of Rumi Vision held open in the dark Jelaluddin Balkkhi (Rumi) By our ten thousand days of work. Harvest will fill the barn; for that Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to The hand must ache, the face must sweat. Don’t try to see through the distances. That’s not for human beings. Move within, And yet no leaf or grain is filled But don’t move the way fear makes you move. By work of ours; the field is tilled And left to grace. That we may reap, Today, like every other day, we wake up empty Great work is done while we're asleep. and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study When we work well, a Sabbath mood and begin reading. Take down a Rests on our day, and finds it good. musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. Harvest There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the Louise Glück ground.

It grieves me to think of you in the past –

Look at you, blindly clinging to earth how to listen #7 as though it were the vineyards of heaven from Brown Girl Dreaming while the fields go up in flames around you – Jaqueline Woodson

Ah, little ones, how unsubtle you are: Even the silence it is at once the gift and the torment. has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen PRAYERS All this world is Harvest Thanksgiving God’s own field A New Zealand Prayer Book H. Alford Blessed are you, God of all creation, All this world is God’s own field, for you give us abundantly, Fruit unto God’s praise to yield, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold; Wheat and tares together sown, we praise you for harvest Unto joy or sorrow grown; and for the assurance of food and drink for another year; El viento despierta, First the blade and then the ear, Then the full corn shall appear: strengthen us, as we enjoy what we are given, barre los pensamientos de mi frente to help the hungry and intolerably poor. y me suen la luz que sonríe para nadie: Lord of the harvest, grant that we spende Wholesome grain and pure may be. ¡cuánta belleza suelta! Otoño: entre tus manos frías el mundo llamea. An African Grace fromThe Supper of the Lamb:

The bread is warm and fresh, A Culinary Reflection The water cool and clear, Robert Farrar Capon Lord of all life, be with us, Lord of all life, be near. O Lord, refresh our sensibilities. Give us this day our daily taste. Restore to us soups that spoons will not sink in, and sauces which are A Prayer of the Harvest never the same twice. Raise up among us stews with more gravy than we have bread to Here are the apples blot it with, and casseroles that put starch and Here the pears, substance in our limp modernity. Take away Crusty bread our fear of fat and make us glad of the oil And cream éclairs. which ran upon Aaron's beard. Give us pasta Potatoes and onions, with a hundred fillings, and rice in a Barley and rye, thousand variations. Above all, give us grace Honey in pots to live as true humans - to fast till we come to And rhubarb pie. a refreshed sense of what we have and then to Berries and cherries dine gratefully on all that comes to hand. And bales of hay, Drive far from us, O Most Bountiful, all Thanks be for the harvest creatures of air and darkness; cast out the God gave us today. demons that possess us; deliver us from the fear of calories and the bondage of nutrition; and set us free once more in our own land, where we shall serve Thee as Thou hast Dear God, blessed us - with the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and Dear God, wine. Amen. Thank you for all the wonderful food And letting me taste it. Help me think of others, too, And not to waste it. PRAYERS

A Thanksgiving Blessing to those who have found other doors closed. Naomi King Three candles shed one light; two of your children become one flesh; many foods eaten build one body. Let us join hands and hearts in gratitude on this Within each one, Abba, wondrous day, where we have the abundance you have planted a seed, of our lives before us. We remember, on this the seed of Christ that grows day of bounty, all those who do not have no matter how deeply buried; enough, who are afraid, who are lonely, and the seed that becomes who suffer. We wish for the abundance of this a tree in whose branches world to be shared, for fear to become love, for all your children may come and rest. the lonely to feel welcomed, and for the Teach us to share, Abba, as your Son shared. suffering to know rest and joy. For the labor, Teach us to be both Mary and Martha. the love, the care that gave us the delights of Teach us to know that we are your home. this and every day, we say "thanks!" For the Let us never forget to show kindness nourishment of our spirit, the challenges that and to share what we have with others strengthen us, and the friends we have on the for these are the gifts that please God. Amen. journey, we sing "thanks!" For all that is our lives, for these good gifts, we whisper, "thanks!" Overflowing with gratitude, let us shout, "thanks!" Amen. Prayer of Thanks for Creation Shannon M.D Smith

Family Liturgy Thank you, God, Thanks for beauty: A New Zealand Prayerbook The twinkle in an older person’s eye, A child’s shout of laughter; The Family Liturgy Thanks for the greening trees and frozen waterfalls, Stunning buildings and flowerbeds in summer. The following may be said by a member or members All: Thanks for beauty. of the family or household, with others lighting the candles. This liturgy maybe shared at the table Thank you, God, Thanks for creativity: before a meal, with three unlighted candles (and The skills of the tapestry weaver, flowers) in the centre of the table. The imagination of a web designer; Thanks for bakers and dancers and crossword compilers, The first candle is lit. For spiders’ webs and city murals. All: Loving God, All: Thanks for creativity. Father and Mother of us all, Thank you, God, in the family life you have given to us, Thanks for abundance: you have offered us yourself. For seeds and raindrops, The second candle is lit. For grains of sand and infinite galaxies; Thanks for seagulls, plankton and shoals of mackerel, All: Your Son lived with us For wriggling worms and golden dandelions. in all the uncertainty and darkness of life All: Thanks for abundance. so that we might walk in your light. Thanks for your world, God, and for our part in it. The third candle is lit. Thanks that you are a maker, and that you made us makers. All: Help us to love creation as you love it, All: And your Spirit is given to us, To take risks to value it as Jesus did, and draw us as a light to guide our steps into the wildness and wonder of your Holy Spirit and as a brightness of heart to signal welcome Today and every day. Amen. KID’SACTIVITIES I wonder...who lived here A Thanksgiving before we did? Have you ever thought about the neighborhood you live in? I wonder if people lived there before you? We’re going to go on an investigation to see what we might find out! Enter your home address into the website: https://native-land.ca/

Thank you, God, Thanks for beauty: The twinkle in an older person’s eye, A child’s shout of laughter; Thanks for the greening trees and frozen waterfalls, Make it a Solo Craft Stunning buildings and flowerbeds in summer. Wow! It seems there were people who used Once you’ve found the items above, I wonder All: Thanks for beauty. to live in your neighborhood! These how you might turn it into an art project? people are calledNative Americans, and they Could you turn it into a collage? How about Thank you, God, Thanks for creativity: were the very first humans to live in your constructing a sculpture? I wonder if you might arrange the objects in an interesting way, The skills of the tapestry weaver, neighborhood. They lived in communities calledtribes. and take close-up photos of your pile? The imagination of a web designer; Or maybe you might draw a still-life Thanks for bakers and dancers and crossword compilers, I wonder if you can spot the name of the picture of it? I wonder if you have other For spiders’ webs and city murals. tribe who used to live in ideas... All: Thanks for creativity. your neighborhood? Backyard Sculpture Competition Choose 1-2 competition judges, andbreak Thank you, God, Head tohttps://wiki.kidzsearch.com your guests up into equal teams. Thanks for abundance: and see what information you can find out The judges will time teams to see who can For seeds and raindrops, about this tribe. collect the most items in under ten minutes. For grains of sand and infinite galaxies; I wonder what languages they might have After the ten minutes are up, set another timer. Thanks for seagulls, plankton and shoals of mackerel, spoken? Clothes they might have worn? Tell the teams that they have five minutes For wriggling worms and golden dandelions. Crops they grew? Food they ate? Things to arrange the objects into a sculpture. All: Thanks for abundance. they did for fun? Did they play music? The judges might share how they will determine Did they build things, like homes? the winning sculpture before the building begins. Thanks for your world, God, and for our part in it. The clock starts, and after five minutes are up, Thanks that you are a maker, and that you made us makers. Report the results of your investigation the judges inspect each team’s sculpture. All: Help us to love creation as you love it, to the people around you. I wonder if They give a few affirmations to each. To take risks to value it as Jesus did, and draw us They knew as much about your into the wildness and wonder of your Holy Spirit neighborhood as you do? A winner is determined, and the winning team members might Today and every day. Amen. be entitled to certain privileges...like the first bite of turkey, or the last piece of pie. KID’SACTIVITIES You Art What You Eat Two New Wishbone Ingredient Exploration and Art Project Traditions To Lead Do you know what a wishbone is? It’s a bone called a furcula, and I wonder what’s cooking in your kitchen it lives near a turkey’s neck. After a turkey is cooked and carved, today? What ingredients are going into the some families go on a scavenger hunt to find the bone, and dry it. meals? Where did they come from? Once the bone is dried, two people see if they can break it together by pulling the ends apart. The person with the biggest piece of broken bone at the end of the contest is said to receive a special 1. Ask the thanksgiving chef to tell you about wish. Breaking a wishbone can be fun, but it usually doesn’t one of your favorite meals being served today, happen on Thanksgiving Day because the bone needs time to dry and what ingredients go inside of it. first. Here are twonew ways to have fun with a wishbone. 2. Seeifthechefhasanysparetrimmings Wishbone Storytelling Challenge from their day of cooking to share with you – This is a fun activity to try over dessert. apple cores, carrot tops, celery greens, Think of all the ways you can look at a something that fell on the floor... it all works. wishbone: Could it be a path split in two 3. Look at the ingredients you were given. directions? A guitar? The letter Y? Maybe a Do you know where each of them comes peace sign? from? You can look up the information online, ask a friend, or a read the ingredient The goal:have the whole table put a story labels to learn more. together using the wishbone as a prop. The challenge: everyone must use the wishbone 4. With the trimmings and ingredients you in a different way. No repeats. Optional: give were given, I wonder what you might create the story a theme, out of them? How to begin: First, choose who will begin the Abstract Drawing or A Sketch story, and decide when the story will be over. Arrange the story tellers in order, and give the Look at your ingredients closely. What shapes first storyteller the wishbone. See what they are they? What colors do you see? I wonder come up with! When the first part of the story is what else this ingredient might look like? I complete, pass the bone to the next storyteller, wonder if the ingredient could become a piece and so on until the end. of art? Pro Tip:Find a device that can record a voice memo, and press “record” s story begins. Send the recording to the group in a few weeks to A Marrow-velousScience Experiment Take your wishbone and soak it in a cup of vinegar overnight. Make sure the wishbone has all the meat cleaned off of it first, and the Stamped Pattern Painting A good meal can vinegar in the cup completely covers the bone. leave an impression on us...in more ways than When you first put your bone in the cup, watch one! it for a few minutes. What do you notice? What 1. Gather supplies, and create an area for do you think might be happening to the bone? painting (recommending you lay some After your bone soaks in vinegar for a day, take newspaper underneath the painting surface) itoutandfeelit. Isitashardandfirmasitwas yesterday? Has it changed?When you first put 2. Lightly dip your ingredients into some the bone in the cup, you may have noticed some washable paint, and press onto your painting small bubbles forming in the vinegar. That’s surface. I wonder what patterns you might because the calcium carbonate in the bone and make? I wonder what you might add to your the acetic acid in the vinegar are causing a creation once it dries? Eyes? A face? chemical reaction. After a few days, see if you can bend or twist the bone now. Is it harder or easier to break? Can you form it into different shapes? Dry it for a few days.

FAMILYACTIVITIES for Live and Remote Gatherings

I’m Goin’ to Thanksgivin’, For ______’s hands who and I’m Bringin’ A ... prepared it, we give you thanks, O God.

A twist on an old classic that is sure to produce good cheer for all ages of the family. For ______, which gave us much joy this year, we give you thanks, O God. This alphabet memory game can be played with as few as two players, but it's much For the strength to weather challenges, more fun when the whole family joins in. especially ______, we give you thanks, O God. To begin, one person kicks it off by saying, "I'm goin’ to Thanksgivin’ and I'm bringin’..." followed by something that you For the opportunity to better understand can eat that begins with A, such as "...apples" ______, we give or "...artichokes." you thanks, O God.

The second player repeats what the first person said, but adds a food that begins with For the memory of B. "I'm going to Thanksgivin’ and I'm ______, whom we lost , bringing apples and bananas." Continue with we give you thanks, O God. the next player repeating the line with the first two items and adding something that For the love of begins with C, and so on with D and the rest ______, who could of the alphabet. As the game proceeds, it not be with us, we give you thanks, O God. becomes harder because the player has to come up with an item for their letter and also recall all of the items that came before. For ______, with us for the first time, and the gifts of If playing with pre-school kids, you can eliminate ______they share with us, the memory element, and make it only an alphabet game. In that version, a player must come up with we give you thanks, O God. an item that begins with the next letter, but does not have to recall all of the items that came before For people who serve and support those in it. need, especially ______, we give you thanks, O God. Crowd-Sourced Table Gratitude For the gift of faith, and the blessings of ______, Get everyone involved in writing and reading the we give you thanks, O God. prayer. In adding your petitions, remember that there are likely a variety of opinions and beliefs For people who are hungry today, people who around the table. work today, people who are lonely today, and ______, For this food, especially the ______, we ask your deliverance and loving presence, O God. we give you thanks, O God. In the name of the Giver of All Good Gifts, we pray. Amen. FAMILYACTIVITIES for Live and Remote Gatherings

Serendipity Two Thanks... and a Wish A Family Gratitude Adventure Serendipity:The accidental discovery of Many of us have played the game two truths something good and delightful! and a lie. For those who have not, players arrange themselves in a circle. Each player I love both the sound of the word, and the thinks of three statements about themselves. concept of serendipity. Just saying serendipity Two are true statements, and one is always makes me smile. I like to think of serendipity as false. The more unique or interesting the giving someone a wonderful surprise. The statement, the better! Thus, it’s recommended discovery of your surprise will be their to avoid common statements like “I like ice serendipity. cream,” as most people could say this and it would not be as interesting as something much Let’s imagine a gratitude more unusual like “I enjoy eating bugs.” serendipity…discovering appreciation where you least expected to find it. What if you To play a round, each person shares the three reached into your coat pocket and found a note statements (in any order) to the group. The from someone, thanking you for being your goal of the game is to determine which special self? Serendipity would happen! statement is the false one. The group votes on which one they feel is a lie, and at the end of Now, let’s imagine…what if everyone in your each round, the person reveals which one it was family created “thank you” notes, or special lie. little drawings, to show appreciation for each other? And then, what if those little notes or In this version, instead of telling two truths,a drawings were hidden under, or in, a person will think of two things they are frequently used object? And then…what would thankful for. Instead of saying alie , a person happen when they were discovered? saysawish — that is, something that is not true, Serendipity would happen! I can assure you yet something that the personwishes to be true. that the accidental discovery of gratitude will For example, someone who wants to be a bring delight. successful fashion designer might say: “Iama successful fashion designer in Paris” (not yet true, As you create a family gratitude adventure, but something they dream to be true). This spin gather small pieces of paper, note cards, pencils, on the game can often lead to unexpected, crayons…and your imagination. Set aside a fascinating results, as people often share time when family members can scatter and touching wishes about themselves. It’s a deeper secretly create gratitude messages and version of the game that can lead to a better drawings. Likewise, set aside some time for the understanding of goals and wishes. wonderful “hiding” part of the adventure. Generally, we hide things because we don’t want them to be found. However, to create The Tables Have Turned serendipity, we want our messages to be discovered. Where can you hide something that This holiday, it might be to flip the table on you want someone to find? I wonder how you storytelling. Have the kids grab some books to might adapt this adventure virtually? Consider read to theadults, who read to them when they these possible “hiding” places: in, or on, were young. Recently, my children grabbed someone’s favorite toy, in the person’s shoe, some favorites and sat and read to their Nana under a bed pillow, in the refrigerator. The and me at dinner. Our best Thanksgiving story possibilities are endless…let your imagination to read is ’Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving soar like the wind. The hardest part of this which is a comical twist on the classic ’Twas the adventure will be to wait patiently for your Night Before Christmas. Another fun story to message to be discovered…but the joy will read aloud isCaps for Sale The best part to read definitely be worth the wait! May this (and act out) is when the peddler finally gets Thanksgiving bring you great delight…and may his caps back from those pesky monkeys:“You it be filled with opportunities to express monkeys you, you give me back my caps!” gratitude for those special people in your life. Family Storytelling Prompts Jam Out Karaoke? A spontaneous dance party? Dinner Tell me about a thanksgiving memory from music? Personal introspection? We’ve got you before I was born. covered. https://tinyurl.com/ Tell me about a Thanksgiving where something y6e6uxdj unexpected happened. Tell me about a family member or friend who is no longer with us. Tell me about a time you thanked God for something good that happened. Tell me about a time when it was hard to be thankful. Tell me about what Philippians 4:6 might mean. What are you able to do today that you were not able to do a year ago? What is the strangest thing you’ve had to try this year? Show me your favorite ______. Why is it so special to you? What three words would you use to describe the least three months of your life? What question do you wish you knew the answer to? If you could teach us one lesson you have learned in your life, what might that be? I wonder what ______would say/do if they were here with us today. I wonder what you might say to ______if they were here with us today? I wonder... if you could invite anyone throughout history to your thanksgiving table, who would it be and why? When you think of “home”, what, specifically, do you think about? I wonder... what do you hope Thanksgiving 2021 might be like? and GIVE THANKS

for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18