Counting one’s blessings at Thanksgiving is even more traditional than a turkey dinner. So this year, like so many others, I am thankful for family, friends, good health, and good books. And for poetry, like this seasonal charmer by Langston Hughes.
Thanksgiving Time
When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down,
When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round,
When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!
When the pantry jars are full of mince-meat and the shelves are laden with sweet spices for a cake,
When the butcher man sends up a turkey nice and fat to bake,
When the stores are crammed with everything ingenious cooks can make,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!
When the gales of coming winter outside your window howl,
When the air is sharp and cheery so it drives away your scowl,
When one’s appetite craves turkey and will have no other fowl,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!
–Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it! And a lovely day to everyone, regardless.
Blue Stockings & Crossed Genres 
Langston Hughes is a favorite of mine! 😀 Happy Thanksgiving, Pam! Maybe it be the best!
Langston Hughes is so often associated with his searing poems about racial injustice. It was eye-opening to discover he’d written some poems that are just pure fun, like this one! Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Jean! (And I just had 3 copies of the Japanese translation of Waltz with a Stranger land on my doorstep this morning, which might constitute another blessing, if an unusual one!)