Although I am not American, I think this poem’s theme is universal. A colleague shared this lovely poem that speaks eloquently about today wherever we live. The poet is Rafael Jesus Gonzalez.
Thanks & blessings be
to the Sun & the Earth
for this bread & this wine,
this fruit, this meat, this salt,
this food;
thanks be & blessing to them
who prepare it, who serve it;
thanks & blessings to them
who share it
(& also the absent & the dead).
Thanks & Blessing to them who bring it
(may they not want),
to them who plant & tend it,
harvest & gather it
(may they not want);
thanks & blessing to them who work
& blessing to them who cannot;
may they not want – for their hunger
sours the wine & robs
the taste from the salt.
Thanks be for the sustenance & strength
for our dance & work of justice, of peace.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
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This is beautiful,Ivon
Thank you Kate. This is a new poet for me, but he wrote a beautiful poem to help introduce himself.
Lovely poem. Thanks so much for sharing:)
You are welcome Jeanette. I am glad you enjoyed.
Thanks be for you too, my friend.
Russ
Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem.
You are welcome.
This is a great poem. I’m not an American either, but I love this holiday. Where are you from?
Shimon, I am from Canada. We celebrated our Thanksgiving in October, but I have many friends and colleagues in the US. It is a great time of the year as we move into our various holiday seasons.
VERY NICE!
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thank you so much.
If only more people would be thankful for the bounty they often take for granted.
I agree Alex. We need to see the world through the eyes of children and with wonder.