I just finished watching the news with Brian Williams, a man with very sincere eyebrows. The news was bad as it is most every day now. Stocks down, gas up, lay-offs, recession on, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. As nation we’re bleak, we’re on edge, the airports are empty and tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

How easy to forget simple gifts. We have poets to remind us:

A Blessing 

by James Wright

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their
happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

The Kenyon Review is a highly respected journal–a great place to  build your publishing credentials. Get writing!

High school sophomores and juniors are encouraged to compete for the sixth-annual Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers presented by the Kenyon Review.
Entries in the competition may be submitted through the month of November. The Kenyon will publish the poetry of the winner and two runners-up. The winner will receive a full scholarship to the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop in Gambier in the summer of 2009. The runners-up will each receive a partial scholarship to the workshop.

Visit <www.kenyonreview.org>for information on the poetry prize and to enter the contest. One unpublished poem may be submitted by each student.