Thanksgiving has long been the poet’s favorite national holiday because, in midst of the celebrations, people really do remember ~ sometimes ~ to stop for a moment to feel gratitude for what they have.

This sonnet is one of a series of seven inspired by the season.

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Recorded Reading (0:59): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xt3qxveyjvwlpdavfgtif/Thanksgiving-IV.mp3?rlkey=ycy9jql9i1sgfv7ri5nzx75zi&dl=0

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Thanksgiving IV

Sitting in darkness unaleviate
In my sorrowful solitary camp
I may not read, no writing here create,
All for the deadly danger of a lamp

For I completely unprotected be
Dread predators around me vigil keep
And, though I fight the need most earnestly,
Sometime tonight, I’ll have to go to sleep

The coldness works its too familiar way
Into the very bones and heart of me —
No matter I with coat or blanket play
Not ever warm in every part of me

Have you had four walls and a lock between
You and the world? And have you thankful been?

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This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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