Hope Is a Thing

Jan Carroll

To each of us in this pandemic together

Though it has no body, no form, hope is a thing
that lives amidst fear and uncertainty, a spring

in the desert, not a mirage, just the water you need
to keep on and on, that sustenance, yes, but also the seed

chock-full of potential for good, that makes you believe
you can do it, you’ll get through, yes, even as you grieve

what is lost or what you worry so suddenly could fall
from your touch, from your hold, though you stall

so many of your usual activities, hunker down at home,
try to nurture in some small way shalom, shalom.

Though it has no mass, no friction, hope is a thing
with weight, heft, anchoring you, but also wing and wing

to lift you, to carry you where your heart needs to go
both within the troubles and beyond them, below

and above, within and among, grounding and freeing,
in stillness and acting, through self-care and we-ing,

learning from our mistakes and from the best we’ve been
and can be, all of us called to be healers now, and when

shadows come near someone you love, wild hope, still rife,
shaky, fierce, rises, lifts its glass, cries, “To life! To life!”

Jan Carroll is a poet, a member of two poetry-writing small groups, and the facilitator of the 6x6 reading series.