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Beginners
Denise Levertov
But we have only begun
To love the earth.
We have only begun
To imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
— so much is in bud.
How can desire fail?
— we have only begun
to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision
how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower,
not as oppressors.
Surely our river
cannot already be hastening
into the sea of nonbeing?
Surely it cannot
drag, in the silt,
all that is innocent?
Not yet, not yet —
there is too much broken
that must be mended,
too much hurt we have done to each other
that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,
so much is in bud.
Has Easter really come and gone? The Church answers a resounding no! After all, while all of the bunnies may have hopped away and the Easter candy have been eaten, the Church declares that the goodness of Easter can't be confined to one day. No, we have 50 days of Easter, lasting until Pentecost! And even then, we have a whole life-time of Alleluias to sing beyond that. Denise Levertov's poem captures the sense of how Easter is just the beginning of the work we have to do.
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