It starts with hope.

Organic Matter
By Anna George Meek

“There is no sense in regarding matter and field as two qualities quite different from each other…What impresses our senses as matter is really a great concentration of energy into a comparatively small space.” ~Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics

Skin from electrons, bone from loneliness.
Compassionate, the city argues itself
kinetic. This night, the inner organs nestle, and glisten;
thieves and their lovers lie low in deep tissues,
warm and ripening. The children have particles
of speech in their hair, and beyond their bodyheat,
the coolness of solitude condenses. Our cells

must obey the old songs: I am drawn into myself
yet drawn to others. Around electrified bodies,
fields of yearning. Tonight, the city’s sleepless shine,
and they cannot rest for their own light.
We infuse, radiate, rush toward, secede.
Within every sensation, the density of us.

This poem originally appeared in Third Coast and is forthcoming in the full-length collection The Genome Rhapsodies (Ashland Poetry Press). Reprinted with the author’s permission.

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.