Written in early March of 2021, inspired by a famous saying of the Catholic poet and Englishman Alexander Pope, 18th century, and by the first signs and acts of spring:
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Alexander Pope
Man never is, but always to be blessed.
The soul, uneasy, and confin‘d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.“
I
When after a long dark winter
You step out
Beyond the treshold
Into the sun of early March
A true warrior she is, in combat with
The morbid idea that there is “nothing new under the sun“
And you step out
Into the bright skies
And there between the rotten leaves of last fall
Find the blue flower
You have been searching for
And dreaming of
In those days when ice and snow
Thick, white, and heavy
Covered all the land
And fog obscured
The air surrounding the eyes of
Your courage
It is a whole field of blue flowers
Not even just one
Hope springs eternal
And life cannot be undone
II
When after a long dark winter
You sow the first seeds
Into a heap of watered earth
Left over from the year before
Having buried inside of it
The holy coal you burned for the blessing of your home
With the white smokes of frankincense
Alongside a prayer and the sign of the cross
Around the Solemnity of Epiphany
When the year was new
And fragile
And still overwhelmed by
Everything that preceded it
And by every kind of lack and loss
It is a whole field of new seeds
Not even just one
Hope springs eternal
And faith cannot be undone
III
When after a long dark winter
There is a smile on the face
Of someone you meet
Along the way
Radiant and true
As if coming from both within
And without
And the greyish clouds above our heads
Deem us to be nothing but ghosts
Whose destiny is to vanish soon
While dry bones
Breathed upon from above
Step out
Of the shades of hiding
Our desires deep within
And rise to feel as if we are
Flesh and blood and heart and all again
There is a spacious field
Opening up
Inside our core
To take in your smile
Your presence
And so much more
Here and now
Hope springs eternal
In the human breast
And we may trust
And confess
That in love
And in boarding ships
The wild and the valiant
Who survived a long dark winter
As it almost
Snuffed out
The tiny wick of their
Precious holy flame
Are always and forever
Blessed