Never Lose Hope, image by ShonEjai, on Pixabay, modified
Violet
One candle flickers in the cold dark
waits for the light of the second candle.
This is the season of preparation.
These are the middle times between
the promise and its fulfillment.
I will not get there
by having, by doing, or by getting–
only by rest and reflection.
I know I have been saved from myself.
I know there is hope for the future.
But I don’t know what I have right now.
Previously published in Agape Review and in Morning Muse
*
Hope
In the season of planned fallow
Seeds I didn’t plant or tend
Bore bitter fruit I had to eat
To keep me going but not thrive
The seeds I desire to plant
And tend for the rest of my days
Seem blown away by changing winds,
Or hidden by the year’s first snow
Patient or not, time will always get
All that it needs for completion
So I settle in for the rest I need
And to make myself ready
Faith worth having grows because
Of powerful storms beyond control;
Shivering and shaken as I am, I await
The proving such tests shall bring
The hope of Spring is all I have
To keep me warm through this Winter
Which doesn’t seem to have an end:
I will hold onto my hope
Previously published in Northern Voices Journal and in Litterateur
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Patrick Connors' first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by
Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013 and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map.
Other publication credits include: The Toronto Quarterly; Spadina Literary
Review; Sharing Spaces; Tamaracks; and Tending the Fire. His first
full collection, The Other Life, was released in 2021 by Mosaic Press.