This Thanksgiving, I want to share two short reading recommendations that have long been part of my own Thanksgiving traditions: “Free Birds” by Michael P. Branch, and “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
In “Free Birds,” Branch offers an illuminating and hilarious history of his favorite Thanksgiving tradition: the presidential pardon of a turkey. Read it to learn how we began pardoning turkeys, and join Branch in wondering what this tradition says about us.
I recommend listening to the audio version, read by the author, which you can find for free by searching for “Free Birds” by Michael P. Branch on orionmagazine.org
In “Perhaps the World Ends Here,” Harjo begins with the line: “The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.” I won’t spoil where it goes from there, but it’s perhaps my all-time favorite poem. It always reminds me of my mother’s table, which was her mother’s before it, and all the times we gathered around it with family, in-laws, “outlaws” and took-ins. Read it for yourself by searching for the title and author.
If you have a Thanksgiving reading or other tradition, we’d love to hear about it at editor@granbydrummer.org.