A Gardener's Thanksgiving by Max Coots

We read this poem every year at our church 

during our Thanksgiving service. 

I love it because it expresses gratitude 

in concrete terms.

A Gardener's Thanksgiving 

By Max Coots 

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
     
For children who are our second planting, and though they 
grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may 
they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where 
their roots are.
     
Let us give thanks;
     
For generous friends...with hearts...and smiles as bright 
as their blossoms;
     
For feisty friends, as tart as apples;
     
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, 
keep reminding us that we've had them;
     
For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
     
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and 
as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as 
potatoes and so good for you;
     
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and 
as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;
     
And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle 
as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as 
dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be 
counted on to see you through the winter;
     
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, 
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
     
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold 
us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;
     
And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past 
that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that 
we might have life thereafter.
     
For all these we give thanks.