Poets’ Corner: “Thanks” on Thanksgiving

26 Nov Poets’ Corner: “Thanks” on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a story of traditions old and new, a day of  family, feasting, and football. But shouldn’t it be about more than that? This poem by Word Woman Rosemerry Trommer puts the “thanks” back in Thanksgiving.

Something Like This,

Anyway

If I prayed, which I don’t,
then we could say that I asked
god to open every door that I
had shut, every door I did not
know was there.
Why I asked this, well,
this will make sense to you
or it won’t, but every closed
door I was aware of
had become a point of suffering.
And with every open door,
I could feel congruence,
the world rushing in to create
more space in me.
And god asked me, though
we could not say that it was a voice,
god asked, Open even the door with people jeering
on the other side, their faces twisted
in hate? Even the door to an entire
forest of sorrow? And because
this conversation was not really
happening, we could not say that
I said yes to the questions, but
we could say, perhaps, that
the yes began to root in me
and it was not so much a matter
of someone opening the doors
but that the doors more or less
dissolved. And what I had thought
could separate me from anything else
was shown to be nothing at all.
I would like to tell you that I felt grace
in the opening, but the truth
is I felt such terrible ache.
And god did not come put a hand
on my cheek and tell me
everything would be okay.
In fact, if anything, the voice
I did not hear told me
there are no promises.
But I felt it, the invitation
to keep opening doors,
to not close my eyes,
to not turn away.
And though I do not pray,
I said thank you, thank you.