0023 Thanksgiving Poem by Michael Shepherd

‘Thanks for yesterday evening –
I really enjoyed myself…’

What a profound statement, is
that hackneyed phrase!

‘Just an impromptu dinner party’,
they invited.

A modest house that shines
with their mutual and family love –
his craftsmanship in every detail,
her sense of beauty at every point,

like the vased flowers
which seemed to be growing
out of a spring of love, openly rejoicing
that they were giving their life to us
in the name of love; calling to us to be here, and now,
to enjoy every moment with them..

the perfectly served simple meal; and
the company, the guests:

the very recently bereaved
who was the unspoken focus
of all our attentive care;

the teacher, always smiling and alert,
so that we feel we know him well– yet
really know so little;

the man whose career
has always seemed a series
of ineffectual starts, who in one more disastrous trough
bought a laptop, found himself
as a children’s writer; now
there’s just no stopping him;

and the others; and over all,
a light, a warmth, a steady conversation
which never mentioned love,
yet was rich with it…
and life, a sheer delight;

so that I enjoyed the self in myself,
knew myself more in that; so

thanks for yesterday evening;
I really enjoyed myself.