“Radical Gratitude: Hearing the Call” – a poem

November is national gratitude month. With that in mind, I wanted to share a poem with you that I wrote about choosing gratitude, perhaps with grateful self-talk, even and especially, through the hard things.

This poem is from the perspective of my “grateful-self” talking to my “needing-encouragement-self”. I hope you enjoy it.

Radical Gratitude: Hearing the Call By Riley O’Brien Powell

Come hither dear and hear the call,
Through the rustling of leaves,
The touches of fall,
And tell me…

Tell me what would you lose?
Being thankful, even for the wounds?

That brought you to your knees,
Or more clearly to see,
The beauty of life around;
The gift of even the sounds.

The music;
When it’s not all in harmony.
The paradox;
When life doesn’t let you see,
The reason for “why me?”

What would you lose
By being grateful for it all?

Light as a feather
Your burdens might lift,
And flutter away at the thought of this gift,
of Thankful.

A respite from your troubles for forever?
Or just for today.
What do you say?
The power of thankful might send them away.

Lost in wonder, life and gratitude,
Creating a change in attitude,
To be thankful, grateful for it all;
Whether today brings bounty great or small.

So come hither, dear, and hear the call!

Lay it down, let go,
What have you to lose?
Hanging on to ‘not thankful’, and singing the blues.

Give it up! Try it out!
Step into the fearful unknown.
Of moving ahead, of going strong.
Not dismissing or denying the wrong,
But changing your tune.

Shifting the focus of what you can control.
And from here on out,
Pressing into thankful.
Grateful for it all.

‘A good measure, pressed down, shaken together’
– Let’s shake this together –
And then running over, pouring into your soul,
Super-abundance from the windows of heaven might flow,
And let you take back what was once yours,
Being fully present with the gift of NOW.

…And feeling thankful, and, unimaginably – even  radically – grateful.


Riley Powell, MDiv, EdM