Thanksgiving Notes and a Poem

On this eve of Thanksgiving, I pause to offer my gratitude for all of the good fortune that has occurred in the past year, and I once again express my appreciation to each reader of Valparaiso Poetry Review who has happened upon the valuable works included in the current issue of VPR, the twenty-fifth, as well as the marvelous materials accumulated in the journal’s pages of archived issues throughout its publication.

Additionally, I am thankful to the large number of individuals who have visited this site in the last year and examined the articles at One Poet’s Notes, the editor’s blog for Valparaiso Poetry Review. I am amazed and honored by the tremendous growth in readership for this blog since its initiation in 2007, as the accumulated number of visits to the pages of One Poet’s Notes surpassed 500,000 this year, with monthly statistics now averaging more than 20,000.

I am especially thankful to the many readers over the years that have sent messages containing complimentary comments and continually constructive statements about the content or form of both Valparaiso Poetry Review and the VPR blog. Consequently, I would like to acknowledge again the fine contributions by the hundreds of authors who have had their works appear in VPR since its initial publication in 1999. I wish all those writers, as well as each reader who generously decided to spend some time considering posts at One Poet’s Notes or browsing the poetry and prose among the thousands of pages of Valparaiso Poetry Review, best wishes for an enjoyable holiday season.

In addition, I would like to express appreciation to my co-editor at Valparaiso Fiction Review, Jonathan Bull, as well as the assistant editors (Emily Bahr, Ethan Grant, Rob Onofrey, Ellen Orner, and Jeremy Reed) who have worked diligently to initiate this new literary review for quality short fiction. Now that Valparaiso Poetry Review has published twenty-five issues, appearance of a new sister publication devoted to fiction seems overdue. I am pleased to note that the debut issue of Valparaiso Fiction Review is scheduled for publication on December 1, and I will include on this blog an announcement of its availability at that time.

As always, I am thankful for the kindness and consideration often offered by friends or family, and I am especially grateful for the love of my wife Pam and my son Alex. I wish everyone a happy holiday weekend, and I hope all will continue to visit in the future to find interesting and informative writings. Finally, on this special occasion I offer a Thanksgiving poem of my own:

THANKSGIVING: BEFORE LEAVING FOR HOME


. . . . . I

At first, one row of clouds fell below that nearby
. . . . . mountain ridge and we could feel the swift wind

of winter’s initial cold front suddenly sweeping
. . . . . across a gray field, still darkened by their stain,

or throwing about those leaves blowing like snow
. . . . . into drifts along the ground all around our rented

house; even today, we know there is no way this
. . . . . day will ever recede very far from our memories.


. . . . . II

Not much more than a few hours earlier, you
. . . . . and I had again awakened long before morning’s

sunrise, though our windows were then whitened
. . . . . by moonlight, to the sound of our young son’s

cries for someone to come to him. As if those
. . . . . roaming shadows that had emerged were thieves,

he’d felt loss move through his room from dresser
. . . . . to desk to chest; an absence had already taken place.


. . . . . III

Who knew the hospital would be so far away?
. . . . . Beneath black branches, wind-thinned and arching

overhead, almost as dark as those cavern walls
. . . . . we’d visited earlier in our vacation, a stark road

wound around the edge of town, coiling toward
. . . . . some distant hint of morning light just beginning

to glint up ahead; at last, with each shallow swallow
. . . . . he’d breathe, we now could see how close we were.

[“Thanksgiving: Before Leaving for Home” is among the poems included in my collection, Seeded Light, published by Turning Point Books.]