Thursday, November 25, 2004

Thursday Poem: Thanksgiving Eve

I thought I'd take a break from the quotations and combine one of the blogosphere's more interesting traditions -- Thursday poems -- with the Thanksgiving holiday. This is, as most of my poetry posts will probably be, a song actually, in this case by Bob Franke, though I learned it via Garnet Rogers' recording, which omits the last verse.

Thanksgiving Eve
Words & Music by Bob Franke

It's so easy to dream of the days gone by
It's a hard thing to think of the times to come
But the grace to accept ev'ry moment as a gift
Is a gift that is given to some
Chorus:
What can you do with your days but work & hope
Let your dreams bind your work to your play
What can you do with each moment of your life
But love til you've loved it away
Love til you've loved it away
There are sorrows enough for the whole world's end
There are no guarantees but the grave
And the life that I live & the time I have spent
Are a treasure too precious to save
Chorus
As it was so it is, as it is shall it be
And it shall be while lips that kiss have breath
Many waters indeed only nurture Love's seed
And its flower overshadows the power of death
Chorus
©1982 Telephone Pole Music Publishing Co. (BMI)

(the index of other lyrics and poetry I've posted is here)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You probably know this, John, but Isaac Gillory's superb arrangement of this can be heard on:

http://www.anetstation.com/

along with a selection of interesting music of similar quality. From Antarctica too!

Ahistoricality said...

That's "Guillory" actually, in case anyone tries to follow up. It's a nice arrangement, musically, and a slightly more personal version of the words. It doesn't quite have the energy of Garnet's version (which you can listen to here). But I've never heard a bad version of the song yet.