~THANKFUL~

I am thankful for...
Animals and Art and Aunts.
Babies Butterflies Books and Baths.
Courage Cats Candles and Contentment.
Ducks and Dandelions Dads and "Dudda".
Evening time, Evergreens,Extras, and Elephants.
Flowers and Family, Fall, Fireflies and Fairytales.
God and Green Eyes and Gardens.
Happiness, Honor, Health and Holidays.
Intimacy and Imagination.
Justice, Joyful tears.
Kisses, Kindness, Kids and Kind Words.
Love and Laughter and Lingering Caresses.
Moms and Milk and Music and Movies.
Nightgowns, Noodles and Naps.
Opinions Ornaments Olives and Options.
Pencils and Palm Trees and Poetry.
Quietness and Quality Time.
Rabbits, Ranch Dressing, Rings.
Sweets, Summer, Sunsets and Stars.
Tulips and Twilight.
Umbrellas and Uniqueness.
Violets, Visitors, Vacations.
Wesley, Winter, water, and Watermelon.
eXcellence, and eXtra Money.
Yawns, Yarn, and Yellow.
Zippers, Zebras and Zoos.

Reviews

[JohnL]

Hello Carrie
A lovely CHEERFUL poem. How many contributors seem smothered in angst and depression? God bless them if this is how they need to work it out, but it was a joy to read your paean to thanksgiving. It would have cheered me up a lot but as it happened, I was pretty cheerful anyway so it preserved the state for even longer. Have you read 'The Great Lover' - First World War poet Rupert Brooke's work on a similar theme (Actually, it's where I learned the word 'benison' with which I tend to pepper my work because I love it)?
Try this, the bit I referto specifically comes a little way into the poem:

The Great Lover, Rupert Brooke.

I HAVE been so great a lover: filled my days
So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise,
The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,
Desire illimitable, and still content,
And all dear names men use, to cheat despair, 5
For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear
Our hearts at random down the dark of life.
Now, ere the unthinking silence on that strife
Steals down, I would cheat drowsy Death so far,
My night shall be remembered for a star 10
That outshone all the suns of all men's days.
Shall I not crown them with immortal praise
Whom I have loved, who have given me, dared with me
High secrets, and in darkness knelt to see
The inenarrable godhead of delight? 15
Love is a flame;-we have beaconed the world's night.
A city:-and we have built it, these and I.
An emperor:-we have taught the world to die.
So, for their sakes I loved, ere I go hence,
And the high cause of Love's magnificence, 20
And to keep loyalties young, I'll write those names
Golden for ever, eagles, crying flames,
And set them as a banner, that men may know,
To dare the generations, burn, and blow
Out on the wind of Time, shining and streaming.... 25
These I have loved:
White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,
Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;
Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust
Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food; 30
Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;
And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;
And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,
Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;
Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon 35
Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss
Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is
Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen
Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;
The benison of hot water; furs to touch; 40
The good smell of old clothes; and other such-
The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,
Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers
About dead leaves and last year's ferns....
Dear names,
And thousand others throng to me! Royal flames; 45
Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring;
Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing:
Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain,
Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;
Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam 50
That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;
And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold
Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mould;
Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;
And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new; 55
And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass;-
All these have been my loves. And these shall pass.
Whatever passes not, in the great hour,
Nor all my passion, all my prayers, have power
To hold them with me through the gate of Death. 60
They'll play deserter, turn with the traitor breath,
Break the high bond we made, and sell Love's trust
And sacramented covenant to the dust.
-Oh, never a doubt but, somewhere, I shall wake,
And give what's left of love again, and make 65
New friends, now strangers....
But the best I've known,
Stays here, and changes, breaks, grows old, is blown
About the winds of the world, and fades from brains
Of living men, and dies.
Nothing remains.

O dear my loves, O faithless, once again 70
This one last gift I give: that after men
Shall know, and later lovers, far-removed
Praise you, "All these were lovely"; say, "He loved."

Here are two 'X's for you. 'X'mas' (Some think of the X as an 'unknown' substitute for Christ but it isn't. In academia, it stands for 'Christos', as an abbreviation used when taking notes) and 'Xanadu' the ancient capital of China, thought of as almost a heavenly city in mythology.

Thank you for organising the competition,
JohnL.

[bluessadmood]

nice hopeful poem ,life is full of ornaments and treasures,we are just too dump to not poke in its beauty,it has lots to give life how wonderful you are ,this is great i loved it ,really

[alyssa]

Very creative!! i love how you found a few words for each letter!! keep writing!!