Thanksgiving

**Nota Bene: I had written this poem about a week ago (well...50% of it is Scripture, so I guess I didn't really write it), and didn't think too much of it since. Then, tonight, when discussing Charles Williams' novel War in Heaven, this verse came up repeatedly. Throughout the novel, characters are repeating incantations in order to converse with the supernatural in a demonic sense, but the one pious character uses Psalm 136 almost as an Invocation of the divine, and thus I added to my title a bit.**

Thanksgiving: A Christian Invocation

This body was given me by my mother,

            though it was not hers to give.

O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good:

            because His mercy endureth for ever.

This breath is lent me by the earth,

            though it is not the earth’s to lend.

O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good:

            because His mercy endureth for ever.

These thoughts will be thought by greater intellects,

            though they will not be theirs to think.

O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good:

            because His mercy endureth for ever.