Levi's Thanksgiving Poem

As we were gathered together today with family and extended family, enjoying a few appetizers as we waited for our magnificent Thanksgiving feast to begin, my son, Levi, decided to compose a brief Thanksgiving poem. He did some quick research on his cellphone, and wrote the poem in orange pen, in his usual hard-to-read handwriting, onto the "I'm thankful for..." banner that our hostess, Libby, had prepared for the kids to write on.

Levi has a natural affinity for poetry, as well as a genuine love of history, so today's poem seemed to be easy for him to write. Anyway, it didn't take him more than a few minutes.

I have become used to deciphering his handwriting, which usually includes very little spacing between words. (That's why much of his written work is completed on his laptop.) So today, with Levi's permission, and in the interest of readability, I have transcribed and slightly edited his poem for you here:


401 years ago was a meal that 3 days lasted.

(Except for those of other faiths; instead, they merely fasted.)

They ate of a meal not so different from now, yet not so similar, either.

Instead, they ate of simpler things, and smaller meals to tide them over.

They ate of fowl unspecified, possibly turkey, geese, or duck.

They ate of seafood also; cod, bass, and oysters they shucked.

Indeed, they had no shortage of corn (unfortunately, not the bread kind)

As well as porridge, beans, and squash (thankfully, without the rind.)

But even as this poem closes, I feel an urge to cry,

For until the year of 1650, there was no pumpkin pie.


Many things have changed since the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags gathered together to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in 1621, but some things haven't changed at all, at least among our family and friends. Everyone still contributes what they can for our Thanksgiving meal, out of the abundance God has given, and we freely thank God for everything he has given us today and throughout the past year.


I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.  Psalm 9:1








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