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Marc Pietrzykowski

DEATH AND THE SOCCERMOM: A THANKSGIVING

(Following Traherne in ways he would not approve)

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Thomas Traherne's Thanksgiving poems were originally published in 1699 as A Serious and Patheticall Contemplation of the Mercies of God, and were promptly ignored. Other of his manuscripts were discovered and published during the 20th century, including one found smoldering in a dumpster, and these works have become fairly well-known; none, however, display the gushing, improvisational grandeur of the Thanksgivings. Interspersing the poem with passages from the Psalms is the only real rule, and then one riffs off these passages to form the poem. I’m not sure Traherne would have enjoyed my version.