Day 194: Snowdrops

January, month of new beginnings. And new hope blossoming, just like the snowdrops coming up. Frightening but exhilarating too,  'in the raw wind of the new world.'


Snowdrops - Louise Gluck

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.