Joe Martyn Ricke – Thanksgiving (A Camino Poem)

Texas poet and singer/songwriter Joe Martyn Ricke’s “Thanksgiving (A Camino Poem)” is both a poem and a prayer. Luminous with gratitude, this poem follows the arduous path of pilgrims through a journey and all the way back home, where the embark on “yet another dangerous, beautiful, terrifying journey”, according to the poem. “‘Thanksgiving’ was a meditation/prayer for my friends while walking the Camino de Santiago,” Joe informed The Dewdrop.

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Thanksgiving (A Camino Poem)

I’m thankful for those who thought they were birds,
and now they know so,
for those who dance like young deer,
because they are,
because their wobble is the way of grace,
for those who growl their bear souls at the heavens
and whoever else might listen
when the stingy world refuses its sweet honey
all of which, to the last drop, belongs to them,
for those who fly like finches,
fall like eagles,
float like falcons
flit like doves
flock together like the belling, bleating sheep she loved once on a haunted hillside
just outside of Roncesvalles.

Not thankful for the loneliness of this dark night,
not thankful for the want of something more than this less than all,
this so big need that never wants to sleep,
this cloud cover when all I ever wanted was the moon herself that one sweet starry night.

But thankful still,
thankful now and forever for the long and deep and wide –
of pilgrim souls,
lost here but found there, then lost again,
then lying down to rest somewhere so far from home,
then, after this their exile,
stripping off their skin,
and starting yet another dangerous, beautiful, terrifying journey.

Thank you mysterious power and love,
for these fierce tender friends.
Bless them,
if blessing means their fire will never dim.

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Read On: Related Posts

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• Gurdjieff and The Two Rivers
• Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
• Pamela Wax – Capricorn Loses His Star
• Barry Casey – Wait Here