Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
 
My heart gives thanks for many things;
     For strength to labor day by day,
For sleep that comes when darkness wings
     With evening up the eastern way.
I give deep thanks that I’m at peace
     With kith and kin and neighbors, too -
Dear Lord, for all last year’s increase,
     That helped me strive and hope and do.
 
My heart gives thanks for many things;
     I know not how to name them all.
My soul is free from frets and stings,
     My mind from creed and doctrine’s thrall*.
For Sun and stars, for flowers and streams,
     For work and hope and rest and play -
For empty moments given to dreams,
     For these my heart gives thanks to-day.
 
by William Stanley Braithwaite
 
*thrall: the state of being in someone's power or having great power over someone.