“J’espère en toi pour nous" 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 Siren song.
Our ties are strong as tempered steel.

With light and reason 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.

" J’espère en toi pour nous" 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 Siren song
Our ties are strong as tempered steel,

With light and reason 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 shore
Where scores would cross the river to freedom’s light
    And shed their chains for evermore.

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.

A nurse in Boulder snaps her suitcase closed.
An Ohio surgeon drives to meet his plane.
A well-digger packs her boots in Glasgow.
Optical tools are stowed for the flight from Sydney.
A dentist tucks her passport in its sleeve.

           Faces of the kin they dearly love
           read of blended pride and sorrow.

But they must go where mercy calls.

Their planes touch down across the globe -
in Kenya, India, Bolivia, Sudan.
Their clinics housed in shacks or tents.
Their board, assembled huts or barracks.
At day's first light their healing gifts begin.

           Villagers faces glow with grateful love
           as hope foretells a new tomorrow

for loving help has come where it was called.

The vaccine line ends at the nurse's station.
New glasses bring a child the gift of sight.
The dentist’s art relieves a father’s aching molar.
The surgeon sets a fractured radius.
Shouted joy acclaims a new well's teeming flow.

            Let us praise that gentle love -
            given from Delhi to Kilimanjaro -

by those who came when they were called -
by those who loved when mercy left no choice.