Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday with its whitewashed, ahistorical propaganda and past family drama, but a national holiday of gratitude is a lovely idea, if honesty were allowed. I find Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Gratitude List” a palate cleanser to the holiday’s usual saccharine humblebrag and rancid xenophobia.
For the first prompt, write two lists, one a list of favorite foods and the other a list of insults or losses you’ve endured. Mix and match these lists to see what sparks for a poem or story or essay.
The second prompt is write a list poem of hard-fought gratitudes: “the one who got away” but now without regret, the swallowed recriminations that long passed out of you, the rejection that pushed you onward.
The third is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “worth,” “power,” “forgotten,” “wider,” “weaponized,” “worst,” “time,” “lemons,” “raw” and “salted.”
The last prompt is to spend ten minutes or so remembering people who have mentored, inspired, comforted and helped you and describe a perfect moment in your life all the while imagining them as your audience. What would you like for them to experience; what would you give them?
Bonus prompt: I sometimes prefer images that blurred or abstracted in some way. Write whatever this photo brings or mind, or describe a scene obscured by rain or shadows or glaring light.
Good luck writing. Have fun.