Hope by Ann King
by The Office
A poem for the first Sunday of Advent 2022. Ann read it on Sunday and we're sharing it here for your continued Advent reflections.
Hope
by Ann King
When the helicopters circled endlessly,
when flames consumed police station and post office
and television news was too awful to watch,
when virus lurked outside our doors,
we huddled in our separated spaces and wondered
Where is hope?
Hope wasn’t in vaccines—then only test-tube dreams,
nor in scoffing politicians, denying the very landscape of our lives.
She didn’t travel with angry rioters as they sought to punish
someone, anyone, for their circumstances.
The smoke and smell of fire swirled around us.
We looked through the darkened windows of our shrinking lives
and thought that hope had withered and blown away
in the warm winds of the summer.
But hope peaked out at us quietly
in the wise and compassionate words of the daily health report.
She was in songs that neighbors sang from their balconies,
in cookies delivered to first responders,
in learning to meet and laugh in digital ways.
Hope first tiptoed into our lives,
and we breathed a little easier.
Then she skipped and invited us to sing with her,
and when she danced, we joined her in a new future.
This is how hope is, how she always is.
Like weeds growing in cracks in the sidewalk,
like vines creeping out of crevices in the cliff,
hope is strong and stubborn.
When we think she’s gone, she is only waiting,
waiting for us to turn from the dark window,
take a deep breath,
open the door a crack,
and let her in.
About The Office
Posts from the office are composed by church staff and leadership at Living Table United Church of Christ in Minneapolis, on behalf of the church membership.
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Thank you Ann!
Ann-
I love this poem!
You captured so much of what we’ve experienced in the past 2 yrs.
I hope we hear more of your poetry in worship.
Thank you❣️