It starts with hope.

Spring Planting
By April Emery Cornish

Male Tears
By Ted Bowman

Tears well up and seek surface drainage.
Blocked by poor priming,
Clogged pipes,
Inexperience,
Rocky soil,
They reluctantly return to their storage place
To await a plumber
… or a handyman.

This poem originally appeared in The Journal of Pastoral Care and Crossroads: Stories at the Intersections (Moravian Church Publications). Reprinted with the author’s permission.

Hope
By Amy Siqveland

In the Presence of Forsythias
By Esme Evans


Much is possible
in the presence of forsythias.

Happiness, even; the idea of it
dropping into the mind
like something from the tropics,
the taste of mangoes, perhaps,
in April, in Minnesota;

And especially when the sky
is grey as duty,
hope might be like this,
these lemon petals like blades
of sunlight, sharpened
and ready to hand.

Hope in springtime: no matter the course life takes, renewal is always possible. This quilt is displayed at CVT’s Healing Center in St. Paul, Minn., along with quilts that represent the other three seasons.

A sign of hope.