Hope - by Philip Booth (and a book to look for)

Hope
by Philip Booth

Old spirit, in and beyond me,
keep and extend me.  Amid strangers,
friends, great trees and big seas breaking,
let love move me.  Let me hear the whole music,
see clear, reach deep.  Open me to find due words,
that I may shape them to ploughshares of my own making.
After such luck, however late, give me to give to
the oldest dance...Then to good sleep,
and--if it happens--glad waking.


I love that line, "let love move me" and "Let me hear the whole music, see clear, reach deep."  That's my prayer today.

This book comes out April 5th.  It's a collection edited by Caroline Kennedy, who says, "Poems marked occasions in our family.  So I got into the habit of giving poems to mark special times, and gradually my friends became a part of this rich exchange too.  Giving someone a poem is a way of saying you understand the way they see the world."