“Not what we say about our blessings,
but how we use them, is the true
measure of our Thanksgiving.”
— W.T. Purkiser, from
The Gifts of the Spirit
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In 2019, Joy Harjo (1952 – ) became the first Native American to serve as Poet Laureate of the United States, and she was only the second Poet Laureate to serve three terms (2019-2022).
Harjo is a poet, musician, author, activist, and teacher. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she is member of the Mvskoke tribe, and a highly influential figure in the second wave of the artistic Native American Renaissance. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, earned her undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico, and an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Creative Writing Program. Joy Harjo is the recipient of many awards, including the 2009 Eagle Spirit Achievement Award and the Wallace Stevens Award in Poetry, given by the Academy of American Poets.
I offer Joy Harjo’s poem, “Perhaps the World Ends Here,” on this Thanksgiving Day because for me, it expresses both something unique to her Mvskoke heritage, and something universal about kitchen tables and the meaning of family.
Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
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The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
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The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
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We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
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It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.
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At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
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Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
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This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
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Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
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We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
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At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
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Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
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“Perhaps the World Ends Here” from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, © 1994 by Joy Harjo – W.W. Norton & Company
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A curious thing happens to women activists if they ever write a poem for children. Here are two women for whom we should be thankful on Thanksgiving:
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Lydia Maria Child was born on February 11, 1802. She was an American
abolitionist, a women's and Native American rights activist, a novelist, a journalist, and an opponent of American expansionism. And yet, she is now only remembered for her poem, “Over the River and Through the Wood” which became the lyrics for the song now associated with Thanksgiving.
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The same thing happened to Sarah Hale:
Sarah Josepha Hale born on October 24, 1788. She was an American author, editor, poet, and activist for women’s education. Hale was the first American woman magazine editor, of the Ladies’ Magazine (1828-1836). She continued as editor after it merged with Godey’s Ladies Book (1837-1877), and it became the era’s most influential magazine, with over 150,000 subscribers in both North and South. Though she is now only remembered for “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Hale was a pioneer in recording women's achievements, compiling the Woman’s Record: or, Sketches of Distinguished Women, a 36-volume collection of profiles of women, tracing their influence through history on social organization and literature. Because several states had a day of Thanksgiving, but they were on different dates, in 1863 Hale sent a letter to President Lincoln, appealing “to have the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival,” and asked the president to “appeal to the Governors of all the States” to follow suit. Lincoln proclaimed November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, as the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving.
”Women have always been an equal part of the past.
We just haven’t been a part of history.”
— Gloria Steinem
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Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing on this day, may it be a day of hope and goodness. Happy Thanksgiving.
