Snowdrops

                                                            Do you know what I was, how I lived?  You know

                                                            what despair is; then

                                                            winter should have meaning for you.

                                                            

                                                            I did not expect to survive,

earth suppressing me. I didn't expect
to waken again, to feel
in damp earth my body
able to respond again, remembering
after so long how to open again
in the cold light
of earliest spring--

afraid, yes, but among you again
crying yes risk joy

in the raw wind of the new world.

Louise Glück