`But for the Common Sunshine'

Turkey, of course. Mashed potatoes and gravy, oyster stuffing, family and friends, good health, money to pay the bills and a little left over, readers, coffee, new shoes, old gloves, a warm coat and cat, Aaron Copland and Art Pepper, C.H. Sisson and D.J. Enright, what little Latin I know, Aldo Buzzi and Guy Davenport, “All things counter, original, spare, strange,” rare good teachers, rarer good students, memory minimally frayed, crows and dark-eyed juncos, snow and sun, the spider in the cobwebbed corner and “Te Deum” by Charles Reznikoff:

“Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.

“Not for victory
but for the day's work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.”