Holiday Poems - Thanksgivings Past

JUBILANT FATHER His face is like a sun, warms the moon beside him. She´s grown full; tonight begins the waning. The tide pulls through her very bones, her form aches as each wave crests. The earth pulse, heavy, blood warm within her Beats new chords, old sun god chants. "You are the first mother and the last, all spring flesh has traveled through you." Aztec plumed and gold beaded, your priest kneels at the holy alter, gathers each salt pearl shed, nectar for his sacrament. You are the temple, we pilgrims swept through the gates, bent figures know the scent and petals of your presence, spread our arms to harvest blossoms, and your priest, sun struck, kneels beside you.

- CRISTINE McAULIFFE

Holiday Poem

Thanksgivings Past

© By Edgar Stoesz

Memories of Thanksgivings Past

To turn the rich soil that has yielded its fruit
And leave a clean, straight furrow behind.
To smell the rich aroma of freshly cut, leafy hay
And anticipate the winter feed it will provide.
To stand before a cabinet of newly canned vegetables and fruit
And know the nourishment it will provide the family in the winter ahead.
To hear the mother pig grunt contentedly
As ten hungry piglets draw nourishment from her.
To see a frisky lamb on each side of its woolly mother, one blac, the other white, shaking their dapper tails while nursing.
To bed the cows at night with fresh straw up to their bellies
And taking one last look before consigning the barn to the night.
To arrive before sunrise the next morning and see
While you slept the miracle of birth had happened again.
To watch as the fields and barns are blanketed
With the season's first layer of fresh snow.
To gather with spouse, children and grandchildren and maybe a friend or two
Around the table laden with the sacrificial turkey and the fruit of their garden.
To be reminded again of that historic hymn, "We plow the fields and scatter
The good seeds on the land. But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand.
To join in the refrain, "All good gifts around us are sent from heav'n above.
Then thank the Lord, Oh thank the Lord for all God's love."

That is to have lived well! Thank you God.

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