Thursday, November 25, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving

Now, I know what you're thinking.
She doesn't look like a 
                    superhero. She looks like a dainty little lady.
                    Never underestimate dainty little ladies.

                                    ~Laurie Halse Anderson, Thank You, Sarah:
                                      The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving


I'm surrounded by family and too much food. What a lucky poet am I! And, I'm wishing you the same. 

Thank you, Ruth, for hosting this week's round-up at There's No Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town.


November is


A gravy word

mixed of all the year's juices

with a little salt and pepper
and dark-by-five spice.


It runs in muddy

after football and lacrosse

wanting a shower and dinner 

before homework time.


November is a chilly

rainy day chat

with a cuppa cocoa

or, a book.

Maybe a cat or dog

sleep near your fireplace.


November is for remembering

our First Peoples

Veteran’s who stepped up

Diwali

and voting for who

will lead until next
November--


In November we put our feet up

eat a little too much
while 
watching the parade

after raking blessings

into orange and gold quilts
to cover f
lower beds 

for winter sleep.


(c) Linda Mitchell 11/25/21



I came across a painting of St. Luke while perusing wikiart.org one day. St. Luke's biblical symbol is an ox. Imagine my delight when I found Hamish by Luke's side in the painting. Hamish has a  Thanksgiving prayer on his padlet



14 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Linda. 'Raking blessings into orange and gold quilts'🧡 A gravy word, running in muddy. There is just so much! (And I'm remembering our shared November cuppas and chat; in your kitchen, the coffee shop, and your library.💛)

    Hamish's Thanksgiving prayer wonderful. Keep us free from the slippery mud of sin, indeed!

    Also ... It just popped into my head, that Hamish could write an oxymoron poem. (Not that it's a form that I know of. But surely he could think of something!)

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  2. A gravy word! Dear Linda, you are indeed a lucky poet. And we are lucky readers! You and Hamish have got to do an oxymoron poem as Kat suggested. Pretty please? Brilliant! xo

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  3. Linda, there is so much to love here. "dark-by-five spice" and "raking blessings" into those gorgeous quilts fill my eyes. I am hoping not only for an oxymoronic poem, but also a whole series of month personification poems. Is this the first month you've written about?

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  4. For the win with "the slippery mud of sin" and "dark-by-five spice!" Here's another vote for an oxymoron poem!

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  5. You have nailed November, Linda. "It runs in muddy" and "November is a chilly rainy day chat." I love LHA's quote, too. Happy November and Holiday to you.

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  6. Simply wonderful, Linda. I love "all the year's juices" & that you included special ones we need to remember. And, I think Hamish is headed to be in a book!

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  7. Dark-by-five spice. So true. What a great poem!

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  8. I LOVE this! I love the idea of five-space in gravy, too - wow. And imagining it muddy and a bit cold at first with sports and then warmed by the end -- and ready for sleep! -- is a very complete picture. I really, really like this!

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  9. Oh, my--I adore that first stanza, and you did capture the full range of November's curses and blessings (although you made the wet chilly curses sound cozy also). And oh, if I were going to be Christian, would that I were Christian like Hamish, in his bellowing beside the vellum, in his steady plod around the slippery mud of sin.Blessings to you, Linda!

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  10. This is great, Linda--and that first stanza is just killer! Gorgeous!

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  11. Linda, I am finally here. Thank Hamish for the beautiful morning prayer with the thought: "keep us free/from lameness, malady/and the slippery/mud of sin." In our haste for blessings, we sometimes forget the animals that surround us and their needs. Interesting that your final November thought, "after raking blessings/into orange and gold quilts/to cover flower beds /for winter sleep", reminds me that the gardeners came this weekend to tuck my garden beds in for their long winter nap. Blessings for your post, Linda.

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  12. Wow, Linda, there's so much I love about this poem, especially:
    November is a chilly
    rainy day chat
    with a cuppa cocoa

    and the ending:
    after raking blessings
    into orange and gold quilts
    to cover flower beds
    for winter sleep.

    Marvelous! And Hamish's poem is terrific too, especially the ending:
    keep us free
    from lameness, malady
    and the slippery
    mud of sin.
    So perfect as Hamish stands beside St. Luke, the patron of physicians as well as of artists. Well done!

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  13. November is gravy! I love that. And all the other things that November is...and now to check in on Hamish.

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    Replies
    1. Oh Hamish, your way with words. the slippery mud of sin...wow plus writing on vellum paper

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Friendly, positive comments and feedback are always welcome here. Please let me know I'm not just whistling in the dark!