Poetry: a welcomed poverty

A man sits bereft

he remembers vaguely now

another time and hopes

longingly for a new love, a new way. 

Yet what arrives is poverty, 

weakness, weariness, and fearfulness 

that a new way has indeed found him,

the way of sorrow. 

Then surprisingly poverty befriends him 

he sits at rest, welcomed, 

desirous and open-handed for only 

what can be given and received freely, uncoerced. 

— — PRH; denver botanic gardens, 12/15/10