This is an Italian sonnet for Thanksgiving Day which in America was formed and established midst a backdrop of hardship. As a discipline during hard times, it may be more important to take time for the practice of gratitude which can form in us a virtue of enduring resilience.

Gathered together, November’s last Thursday

The turkey is stuffed, pecan pies prepared

The table is set, pulled in the extra chair

And pass the time watching Macy’s parade.

Long ago the first Thanksgiving Day

Began when refugees with natives shared,

Thanks for their host’s hospitable care

And Providence who kept their hunger at bay.

So before you return to your television,

Succumbing to the tom’s turkey-ed sedation,

Before you doze and into sleep drift,

Pause for a moment acknowledge provision

With gratitude comes a gift’s consummation

For seeing the giving is Thanksgiving’s gift.

© Randy Edwards 2016

artwork: : “The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe, 1914. Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal