Poetry for this Thanksgiving Day by J.K. Foran, KC, Lit D, LL D., from the posthumously published collection A Garland: Lectures and Poems (Montreal: Gazette, [1931]).
For the sound of waters rushing In bubbling beads of light;
For the fleets of snow-white lilies
Firm anchored out of sight;
For the reeds among the eddies,
The crystals on the clod;
For the flowing of the rivers,
I thank Thee, O my God!
For the rosebud’s break of beauty,
Along the toiler’s way;
For the violet’s eye that opens
To bless the new born day;
For the bare twigs that in summer
Bloom like the prophet’s rod;
For the blossomings of flowers,
I thank Thee, O my God!
For the lifting up of mountains
In brightness and in dread;
For the peaks where snow and sunshine
Alone have dared to tread;
For the dark and silent gorges
Whence mighty cedars nod;
For the majesty of mountains,
I thank Thee, O my God!
For the splendor of the sunsets,
Vast mirrored on the sea;
For the gold-fringed clouds that curtain
Heaven’s inner majesty;
For the molten bars of twilight,
Where thought leans glad, yet awed;
For the glory of the sunlight,
I thank Thee, O my God!
For the earth and all its beauty,
The sky and all its light;
For the dim and soothing shadows
That rest the dazzling sight;
For unfading fields and prairies,
Where sense in vain has trod;
For the world’s exhaustless beauty,
I thank Thee, O my God!
For an eye of inward seeing,
A soul to know and love;
For these common aspirations
That our high heirship prove;
For the hearts that bless each other
Beneath Thy smile, Thy rod;
For the amaranth saved from Eden,
I thank Thee, O my God!
For the hidden scroll, o’erwritten
With one dear name adored;
For the heavenly in the human,
The Spirit in the Word;
For the tokens of Thy presence
Within, above, abroad;
For Thine own great gift of being,
I thank Thee, O my God.
