Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Measure of Thanksgiving


Photo by Katy Brown, Davis


LINES FOR WINTER

(for Ros Krauss)
—Mark Strand

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and grey falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your
limbs
that you love what you are.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

~W.T. Purkiser

___________________

—Medusa