My family will be coming to our house for Thanksgiving this week, including our adolescent niece and nephew. When they were here for Easter, the poetry boxy held Ada Limón’s glorious ode to spring, “Instructions on Not Giving Up.” My niece, then 10, declared, “But there are no instructions in it.” Fair point.
I wanted this holiday poem to be as available to middle schoolers as retirees. And I’m glad to include a poem from Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate and member of the Muscogee Nation, and to celebrate the glory of gathering around a table, as we couldn’t for so long. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
“The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what,
we must eat to live.”
