SONG OF PURE THANKS

Give thanks to the early morning whoosh
of freeway cars and cups of coffee,
black steaming, strong tasting
on the lively receptive tongue.

Give thanks to the gleaming ground
of firm wooden floors
and the verdant earth, green and holding
each precious, sentient being.

Give thanks to the chirps and squawks
of birds aflight and the busy rumbling of alley trucks,
as their fertile sounds reach our open ears,
signaling: “new day”! “new day”! “new day”!

Give thanks to the several senses,
such deft messengers on thresholds,
delivering surprises and smiles
day in and day out.

Give thanks to poetry, the bridge
of language and to the wet
cave-worlds of rich deep dreaming
where people are made more whole.

Give thanks to the crisp air of space,
playground of circling hawk, Cessna plane
and kite fliers of blue sky Saturdays,
all soaring free and grand
in their own buoyant breezy time.

Give thanks to a room full of such good friends
from many decades and places,
these men and women who grace our lives
our hearts on meandering paths
in these delicious, turning years.

Give thanks to the glee and laughter of playful children,
whose bright smudged faces and leaping souls
fulfill future’s large promise in full.

Give thanks to animals great and small
of varied voices and habitats, pleasures and gifts,
who share the vivid world of instinctive nature
and rainbow of color with all.


Give thanks to mother mountain and father ocean
who drape our souls, our skin and bodies
in love’s shielding, enduring fountain.

Give thanks out loud for time’s great drumbeat
in whose sacred sound and percussive pulse
ancestral music resounds and comforts,
transforming all, in each blessed season
lifting further and higher!