“For the New Year, 1981”

I have a small grain of hope— one small crystal that gleams clear colors out of transparency.

I need more.

I break off a fragment to send you.

Please take
this grain of a grain of hope so that mine won’t shrink.

Please share your fragment so that yours will grow.

Only so, by division, will hope increase,

like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower unless you distribute
the clustered roots, unlikely source—
clumsy and earth-covered—

of grace.