Thanksgiving
As Close to Grace as I Dare Venture: A Collection of Incidental Verse
by
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1995 Tradition sets the table, orders the feast. Above a spotless cloth, purple berries poised Their deep stain both menace and mystery, legacy of long-faced boxy Yankees and dark natives, lithe and handsome, generous with gifts. Our New England triptych, Pilgrim, Indian, wild turkey. Down every street, myth sifts with chimney smoke, burnt offerings of ritual bird, unmentioned penance. Your forebears? Mine? Whose myths? Where lies the ache and debt and promise? From a hundred lands we’ve come, to hail Columbia, Gem of the Ocean, Star of the West. Behind America’s closed doors, we mediate the elusive cipher, which knits us into one, and in the silence of our hearts, and myriad tongues, give Thanks, and dream of justice. 1989 Dear Folks, Jokes are not this BIRD’s fit sauce. To find apt words of THANKS I'm at some loss. The EARTH did split, the land did QUAKE All joy our bosoms did forsake. A lifetime’s dream, a SERIES jewel transformed into a month so cruel. Yet finally, abundant thanks we give that so few perished, so many LIVED. And, finally, BASEBALL had its day Bravo!! Cubs, Jays, Giants, A’s— (Dwell not upon the final tally— Next year may see a winning rally). But now, gaze beyond the local troubles behold: The IRON CURTAIN’s rubble! Another QUAKE unleashed this fall has taken down the Berlin Wall. Gorbachev rises, light pierces gloom New HOPE we can escape sure doom. Away from arms, our aim is to address the sludgy mire, our planetary mess. So upon this upbeat note I’ll ask (it’s fashion) for your vote Will you join me, comrades all and to our FEAST of SHARING fall???
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About the Book
Since early colonial days, North American communities have stopped for days of prayer and thanksgiving. Grateful for mercies received and sobered by harrowing conflicts, people have paused for a day to reflect upon life’s bounties and tragedies. In its current incarnation, however, it is sometimes a shallow splurge of food and football. Only vestiges of this initial community tradition of thoughtful reflection can sometimes be found. This collection reflects an effort to revive the tradition of thoughtful reflection and contemplation of our role and responsibilities in today’s troubling and often violent world. Written year by year over the decades, each “grace” speaks to a moment in our nation’s passage through many elections, crises, disasters, and even triumphs. High moral purpose is balanced by a spirit of playfulness and an appreciation of the myriad beauties of our planet and universe. These graces have been shared at tables around the world for over three decades. Enjoy them and catch glimpses of our collective life as we moved from the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries.
About the Author
David Kessler was born in Brooklyn. He learned his first lesson in love and loss when the Dodgers left town. He relocated to Hartford, where he was exposed to New England culture. He then headed west, first to Kalamazoo College, and eventually fulfilled his lifelong desire to live in Berkeley. After doing graduate work in history at the University of California, he went to work in the university library. He recently retired from its fabled Bancroft Library. He continues to indulge his passions for swimming, baking bread, and reading contemporary fiction. He sometimes entirely disappears from view during the baseball season. He and Nancy Mennel, his wife of thirty-five years, lost their home in the calamitous 1991 Oakland Hills Fire. They rebuilt. David has been active in the neighborhood’s community life since that signal event.