15 Thanksgiving Poems to Keep You Entertained All the Way to Grandma's House

An old poetry professor of mine always used to say that one great thing about poems is that, so often, you get a poem before you really understand it. It resonates when you haven't anticipated it to, or creates a stillness where there wasn't one before. It can make you feel reflective. And doesn't Thanksgiving, a whole holiday dedicated to reflection and thoughtfulness and being with others, do the same thing?

Read these poems while you're traveling, or between turkey bastings, or share them around the table, or use one for a toast, or say them aloud if grace isn't your thing. Some of them are about Thanksgiving, some of them are about thanksgiving, and some of them float around the holiday's edges—these poems are as sometimes-idyllic, sometimes-painful, sometimes-wacky, sometimes-touching, as Thanksgiving is:

• "Family Reunion" by Maxine Kumin

  Benign and dozy from our gluttonies,
  the candles down to stubs, defenses down,
  love leaking out unguarded the way
  juice dribbles from the fence when grounded
  by grass stalks or a forgotten hoe,
  how eloquent, how beautiful you seem!

• "In Harvest" by Sophie Jewitt

  A goldfinch dangles from a tall,
  Full-flowered yellow mullein; all
  The world seems turning blue and gold.

• "Thanksgiving for Two" by Marjorie Saiser

  We are the feast, plenty of years,
  arguments. I’m thinking the whole bundle of it
  rolls out like a white tablecloth.

• "Aimless Love" by Billy Collins

  This is the best kind of love, I thought,
  without recompense, without gifts,

• "Butter" by Elizabeth Alexander

  ...When I picture
  the good old days I am grinning greasy
  with my brother, having watched the tiger
  chase his tail and turn to butter.

• "Thanksgiving" by Tim Nolan

  (whatever they are)—wrapped up as
  small gifts inside the cavern of the ribs—
  thanks—thanks—thanks—for the candles

• "Oysters" by Seamus Heaney

  The frond-lipped, brine-stung
  Glut of privilege
  And was angry that my trust could not repose
  In the clear light, like poetry or freedom
  Leaning in from sea.

• "Onions" by William Matthews

  How easily happiness begins by
  dicing onions.

• "Thanks" by W.S. Merwin

  with the cities growing over us
  we are saying thank you faster and faster
  with nobody listening we are saying thank you
  we are saying thank you and waving
  dark though it is

• "The Traveling Onion" by Naomi Shihab Nye

  When I think how far the onion has traveled
  just to enter my stew today, I could kneel and praise
  all small forgotten miracles,

• "Perfect for Any Occasion" by Alberto Rios

  I tell you everything is great, says a pie,

  Great, and fun, and fine.
  And you smell nice, too, someone says.

• "Potato Soup" by Daniel Nyikos

  I set up my computer and webcam in the kitchen
  so I can ask my mother’s and aunt’s advice
  as I cook soup for the first time alone.

• "The Bean Eaters" by Gwendolyn Brooks

  Two who are Mostly Good.
  Two who have lived their day,

• "Home is so Sad" by Philip Larkin

  Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
  The music in the piano stool. That vase.

• "Eating the Bones" by Ellen Bass

  They use up love, they swallow
  every dark grain,
  so at the end there’s nothing left,
  a scant pile of splinters
  on the empty white plate.

Share your favorite Thanksgiving poems, verses, songs, and stories in the comments!