“I Love the Look of Words” By Maya Angelou

Popcorn leaps, popping from the floor of a hot black skillet and into my mouth. Black words leap, snapping from the white page. Rushing into my eyes. Sliding into my brain which gobbles them the way my tongue and teeth chomp the buttered popcorn.

When I have stopped reading, ideas from the words stay stuck in my mind, like the sweet smell of butter perfuming my fingers long after the popcorn is finished. I love the book and the look of words the weight of ideas that popped into my mind. I love the tracks of new thinking in my mind.

“Thanksgiving Time” By Langston Hughes

When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down, When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round, When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground, It's Thanksgiving time!

When the pantry jars are full of mince-meat and the shelves are laden with sweet spices for a cake When the butcher man sends up a turkey nice and fat to bake, When the stores are crammed with everything ingenious cooks can make, It's Thanksgiving time!

When the gales of coming winter outside your window howl, When the air is sharp and cheery so it drives away your scowl, When one's appetite craves turkey and will have no other fowl, It's Thanksgiving Time!