still alive

“What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Complete Poems

___________________

Blow wind!

Come rain!

Assail the world

Strip the trees bare

and make the earth sodden

we stand in the wet and wildness which

reflects that inner storm

as we descend

into the winter of our discontent

Let us embrace the wild thoughts

and harsh emotions

knowing they are all we have left

to prove that we can still

resist

the dead frozenness

of hopelessness and despair

and we are yet

alive