Glasgow University graduate Margaret Blair (nee Telfer) lives in rural Ontario and is the author of two books on Shanghai.
She writes of her poem: "The Canadian Thanksgiving is a public holiday held on the second Monday of October. It is an opportunity for people to give thanks for the bountiful harvest and good fortune of the past year. It is not derived from the American Thanksgiving, which is in November.
"For Canada, Thanksgiving continues the tradition of our native peoples' ceremonies of thanks for harvest and plenty, and that of later European immigrants' harvest festivals."
THANKSGIVING
Call of wild geese flying south
Field of sunflowers
Scurry of squirrels storing food
In the pine tree boughs
Silk sprouting from corn stalk tops
Ripened by soft rain
Drawn by three gorgeous horses
A Mennonite plough
Fertile brown furrows of earth
Waiting for next spring
Sunset over lake water
Tawny yellow hay
Maples' splendour of colour
Smile at the first sip of tea
Each in its own way gives thanks
For another peaceful year.
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