“The freest person is the one with the most hope –“
Gabriel Marcel

Of all the shards of a broken world
That chafe our wounded psyches,
None cut deeper than the
jagged edges that would
exchange our essence for function.

Are we nothing but the pieces we craft,
the spreadsheets we tally?
Are we only the hours we clock?

When we raise our hands to the light
do our fragile bones
appear pale and translucent?

We wander like nomads without a tribe,
banished to a strange and distant land -
exiled from our once inquisitorial selves.

Do you see that distant light?
It calls us to elevate
the blinds of our forgotten dreams.

Its haze obscures the blazenness.
Which brightens with each forward step.
Go ahead, approach if you dare.

Behind that veil stands “Redemption”
who waits patiently for us in the
form of an oracle who coolly whispers,

“Welcome back, my name is Hope.”

“I hope in you for us." Gabriel Marcel

When we share hope our bond is real
     And when our voices chant a blended song,
Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

In anxious times with fears surreal,
     We seek out friends among the throng.
When we share hope our bond is real.

But when our wills compel us feel
     Spirit-bound to search, however long,
Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

Without a sign, the fates reveal
     A newfound friend who’s come along.
When we share hope our bond is real.

With zest our common course we seal
     Hope-called by duty’s civic song.
Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

With reason's light to fire our zeal,
     We rise to challenge fortune’s wrong.
When we share hope our bond is real.
     Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

"I hope in you for us." Gabriel Marcel

When we share hope our bond is real
     And when our voices chant a blended song,
Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

In anxious times with fears surreal,
     We seek out friends among the throng.
Without shared hope no bond is real.

But when our wills compel us feel
     Spirit-bound to search, however long
For ties as strong as tempered steel,

Without a sign, the fates reveal
     A newfound friend who's come along
To share our hope; our bond is real!

With zest our common course we seal
     Hope-called by duty’s civic song
Our ties are strong as tempered steel,

With reason's light to fire our zeal,
     We rise to challenge fortune’s wrong.
When we share hope our bond is real;
     Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

A poem not yet written
Is like a genie incarcerated in its bottle,
Waiting for the gentle strokes
Of its poet’s liberating quill.

An image here, an alliteration there
Send emergent clouds of verbal magic
Floating into the aether,
Demanding to be crafted into
A tapestry of finest weave and hue.

It will be what it must
And not even the hope-filled poet
Can foretell its destiny.

But like all expectant parents,
Quaking in the throes of labor,
The poet hopes his or her newborn child
Will leave the world
An incrementally better place.

On an ominous and moonless star-filled night
    Lady Moses led them to the Ohio's shore
Where scores would cross to freedom’s light
    And shed their chains forever.

With boundless, courage and everlasting drive
    Thousands more would soon arrive
To climb aboard and row on liberty’s ride
    With Harriet Tubman as their guide.

for Joscephine Gomez

I quietly closed the door behind me and stepped inside
Where several souls had preceded me.

    A painter stood by her easel by the south door,
    There was a poet seated at her desk.
    A Buddhist scholar stood before an open tome
    and a lyric soprano softly hummed her warm up patterns.

Just then another soul entered the room and asked,
“Who are these people and how did they get here.”

I answered, “they are all called Joscephine
    and they have come from the stars
    bearing gifts to heal us, encourage us
    and light our ways with kindness and wisdom.