Consider the optimism of alchemy.
See how desperately we strive
to create what we never were
from what we really are.
A stone, a potion, a spell:
anything that can transform us
into the actual we aren't,
into the being we'll never be,
through a pulseless world
of winter, still and lifeless;
where yet, the tantalizing
possibility of Spring
beckons like the ghost
of a beautiful woman
murmuring to us:
*yes I said yes I will Yes.

Some say the glass is half full
Some say the glass in half empty
They all focus on the job of the glass
No matter the contents
The glass is there
In sadness or happiness
Toiling with duty and abuse
Next time you see a glass
Wrap your hand around it
In comfort
For there is nothing in this whole universe
That is not joined and one
Feeling both pain and love
Remember these simple words
Then you shall carry humility like a medicine gun
Curing all that ails mankind
As one, the universe is never blind
Do not be the fool, instead be kind

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas Poets
and a great new year.

Nivek

βλέπω*

Hope flickers in gathering darkness.
War, sickness, death, poverty, loss:
we must suffer them all again.
The dark heart of being
wears the weary soul.
The common world of pain,
a place we all know best.
Yet even as night falls,
a new morning of light beckons.
Hope flickers but does not falter.

There was a handmade cake on my table
and a letter with immature hand:

I start with this
but know that
whenever and wherever I bake a cake
you'll be in my mind.

It tasted not that sweet
I remember
and she was never to make another
in my corners of bitter December.

I have no other Christmas memory.

There couldn't be.