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Thanksgiving Prayer
by Kathryn Kay(This poem may have inspired John F. Kennedy’s most famous challenge.)
God, ev’ry year about this time,
according to routine,
I’ve bowed my head in the accepted way
and offered thanks, like some well synchronized machine
that prayed because it was the time to pray.
But, God, this year is different, this year I seem to feel
America’s Thanksgiving is my own,
that in my nation’s gratitude I have a part that’s real,
a part that until now I’ve never known.
And, God, this year a deep humility has filled my heart,
a newborn pride rings true thruout my soul
because I do belong, because I have and am a part,
a tiny part of one tremendous whole.
I think I know the feeling of those first Americans
who said, “We must give thanks for this, our land.”
I cherish now the rights that are each woman’s, ev’ry man’s,
the rights I’ve just begun to understand.
This year my heart has learned what all Thanksgiving Days are for,
true thankfulness at last I realize,
but, God, I’m sorry that it took the tragedy of war
in other lands to open up my eyes.
Again I bow my head but this time deep within me stirs
a mighty prayer, part of one vast design,
“God, help me make America as proud that I am hers–
as I am proud, and grateful she is mine!”(Goldfish Privacy © 1941, reprinted with permission)
About the poet:
LDS poetess Kathryn Kay (Kathryn Worsley Pratt) was a popular radio announcer on the KFI radio show Midnight Frolic out of Los Angeles, California, a forerunner of today’s late night television broadcasts, from 1927 to 1930. She was also Associate Editor of “Parade” magazine before it became a Sunday supplement.Kathryn began writing poetry at age 10 and has had three major poetry books published. Kathryn died in February 2005, but a new book of her poetry has been published with the title Goldfish Privacy and is available wherever LDS books are sold or on the Sheralynn Pratt website.
