Category: Thanksgiving

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The Little Things

Is it not fit that we should pray
Our thanks to Providence each day
For every blessing Freedom showers?
For this our Flag? This country, ours?
The thrill of dawn; the swooping hawk?
For moonlight spilled upon a walk?
A perfumed flower; a haunting song?
Our leisure hours; a Christmas throng?
The poignancy of backward looks;
For covers of familiar books?
For solace from wooded glade
In summer, patterned light and hade?
The tasks contented lives demand;
The warm clasp of friendly hand?
An Elm tree’s shape; October skies;
For longing trust in children’s eyes?

The poorest American can afford
Full all these things, who love the Lord;
Father, her us as we say,
“Thanks again”, Thanksgiving Day.

by Ray Romine Wednesday, October 4, 1944

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Thanksgiving Thought

That we may be thankful, a day set apart
That each may examine his owm inner heart;
A time to be thankful for good things to eat,
For clothes to keep warm and for shoes on our feet,
For dreams that we dream that may never come true.
Dear God, I am thankful above all for you.

by Ray Romine Saturday, June 5, 1954

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Thankful

Thankful for our country;
Thankful for our home;
Thankful for the sun that lights
The sky’s blue dome.

Thankful for grass that greens
The river’s soft banks;
Thankful there is a day
For us to say Thanks.

by Ray Romine Saturday, June 5, 1954

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G. I. Thanksgiving

“What’s that?” he said, “You’ve sympathy for me?
Then keep it –I don’t need it . See that fellow
Four beds down? We were in the same engagement;
He’ll never see again. He was an artist, before,
Doing well. You know what he says?
He says he can still see sunsets , and hills of goldenrod ,
And stuff like that , in his mind’s eye, sort of;
And even if he can’t paint , he can still dictate
His impressions. So, he’s going to be a writer!
A WRITER? And he’s thankful just for that ,
Honestly thankful!
Me? I can learn again to write, and draw , and do things–
I’ve only lost my writing arm; I have another,
And BOTH EYES!
This is my twenty-first Thanksgiving; and the first one
I’ve ever been truly thankful for my blessings.
No , I don’t really need your sympathy,
But thanks anyway.”

And I have all my faculties:
How do I stack up with chaps like these?

(1st Prize, Ohio, NTA Contest, 1944)
Announced May 12, 1945

by Ray Romine Wednesday, October 4, 1944