Hope is a celestial arc along which
We climb to Love itself. Love, that wholeness,
Will call us from time to time. The hitch
Is that we lose our way when we focus
On the fakes and frauds and near replicas
Of the song that is life. Lipstick’s not hope!
Nor is believing up is down. Find a
Better way to hold your telescope
So you see with your heart Love’s distant star
Pulsing, and calling; beckoning you home.
Its wholeness reaches under life’s brute scars
So without a word your heart knows shalom:
The peace the world can’t give nor take away,
Even when terror reigns and skies are gray.
-Allegra Jordan, 2020. http://www.poetrybrigade.org