Give Thanks [15 Words or Less]

Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here. 

Our younger daughter lives overseas doing volunteer work. She lives on practically nothing and works to make the world better. Here’s the holiday decoration she made for her flat, including her hand-painted reminder to herself to be grateful. She is so inspiring!

Photo: Maddie C. Salas

This image makes me think of several things:

  1. Ack! It’s late November already!
  2. candles make everything magical
  3. the smell of Christmas trees

And here’s my first draft. My dead laptop has had a new solid state drive installed and will be home eventually. For now, I’m on an ancient laptop and work is still proceeding very slowly. (But that’s better than NO laptop, and I am grateful!) I can’t do the image version I usually do, but here it is:

Breath
 
Each morning,
I open a gift
 
Wrapped in snow
Tied with ribbons of sunrise sky

–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.)

 

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27 Responses

    1. Your poem capturee something in my heart, Suzanne, that feels extra life in the face of nature and animals. Migrating Canada geese are one of my favorite sights and sounds of fall and spring:)

  1. Happy Thanks Giving every one
    poem by Jessica Bigi

    Recopy Of Peace

    G‑olden
    I‑ngredients
    V‑irtues
    E‑mbracing

    T‑ogetherness
    H‑elping
    A‑chieve
    K‑indness
    S‑ucceeding

    1. Happy Thanksgiving, Jessica! I love the emphasis on kindness. And that final word…love it!

  2. Happy Thanksgiving, Laura! I’m up early with the pets thinking about how to attack food prep as a teaching chef to my teens. I love being in the kitchen with everyone. And, I lived in another country for two Thanksgivings. There’s some bitter/sweet feelings being so far away at holidays. Give your daughter a virtual high-five from me.

    Far from home

    Not alone

    Giving Thanks

    Brings home

    From afar

    1. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Linda. I’m sure all your food will be amazing! I’m so glad our daughter does have a Thanksgiving celebration to go to, with another American family she’s very close with and a few other people from various countries. She got to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, too:) We hope to get to Skype with her for a few minutes later today.

      I miss her so much, but I am thankful for her daily, whether she is close by or half a world away. Thanksgiving day as a good reminder to be grateful that she is happy, and healthy, and doing what she feels called to do.

  3. Laura, I love your praise poem to the day. And it was wonderful to see you at NCTE.
    I have a friend who is very ill with sepsis and she is spending her Thanksgiving in the hospital. Dani and I visited St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, New Orleans and, even though I am not Catholic, I lit a candle for her.

    I lit a candle today
    white wax
    in votive glass
    and said a prayer
    for you.

    Happy Thanksgiving All!

    1. Margaret, it was so awesome to see you and spend a little time with you at ncte. Seeing friends in person is really one of the highlights of the conference! Hoping your friend with sepsis recovers–how scary. I like how the day sounds in your first three lines echo each other and then the surprising softness of those end two lines. The whole poem feels like a prayer. Happy Thanksgiving!

  4. Laura, I love your poem. And wow, your mama heart must be so proud.

    Inspired by your poem and my month long grump:

    Waking a gift
    I’ll take
    delight
    in the unwrapping
    of the day

  5. Away from home for Thanksgiving, celebrating with husband and daughter and a family we don’t know. This should be another interesting holiday for our “family holiday book”.

    Giving thanks takes up
    No space
    But can fill
    to overflowing.

    By Donna JT Smith

    1. Donna, I love this little truth. I can’t think of what it’s called when something that seems contradictory is really true, but you accomplish that effect beautifully here. Happy Thanksgiving!

  6. THANKSGIVING PRAYER

    The table’s full of food to eat
    The room, with family to greet.

    Thank you.

    1. I love the simplicity of this, Cindy. The essentials are all covered. Everything else is a bonus. Happy Thanksgiving!

  7. I am thankful for the community here and especially Laura, who has made Thursdays special with 15 WOL. Who else feels families should be home celebrating on Thanksgiving, and not out shopping or having to work?

    Thanksgiving — Gathered Together

    Close the doors
    of non-essential stores
    It’s NOT about Christmas.
    Stop the shopping wars.

  8. What a great way to get in the spirit of the day!

    F amily gathers
    A nd every year
    M akes
    I ncredible new memories,
    L ooks back on
    Y esterdays with gratitude.

    Sherry Howard

    1. I love this, Sherry! It makes me want to print it out and hang it up at our gathering:) Happy Thanksgiving!

  9. I’m thankful for this wonderful community that Laura creates! Happy thanksgiving to all.

    Thanksgiving Wish

    Pumpkin, blueberry
    apple too–
    a slice of thanks
    to you and you!

  10. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Laura, for some reason I cannot get a “comment” prompt except this one which says Gargoyle (Poetry Friday). I cannot view any comments for today’s picture. Taking a chance that the internet will straighten itself out; if not, this will make no sense tomorrow. Loved your “Breath” title and for some reason thought of baby’s breath, the flower, even thought it was the aqua in the photo, not the actual flower.

    ‘Tis the Season

    Holly berries
    pine cones
    harmonize
    with
    pumpkin scented
    candles
    signaling
    onset
    of
    year’s end.

    1. Martha, you’re commenting on the right post, and we’re glad! I love celebrating the beauty of the year’s end. It’s not only beginnings that are beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving!

  11. Happy Thanksgiving Laura! Beautiful poem. Sounds like your daughter is doing great work! I am so thankful for my family and people like you who are so generous in the writing community! Today I’m thinking of family who are no longer with us.

    The Empty Chair

    We sit…
    A humble lot,
    And give thanks.
    Your empty chair
    Filled with love.

    1. Jean, this is so lovely and bittersweet. I had a full, lovely, fun day, but my mom was also on my mind. 🙂

  12. Happy Thanksgiving Laura! This is my first participation here. ????

    Perplexed pinecones
    don’t know what to wear
    for the winter party
    maybe a sprig of frost

    Vicki Wilke

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