“What’s the difference between hope and waiting?” (after Anna Kamienska’s, ‘Difference’)  

Hope is trusting the lit-look steps,
the wild, trod-less path,
the unfolding

Hope is doing the work of
seeing and accepting
and atoning

I know how to live in hope.
But the waiting?
There’s no certainty there

Instead, a doubt, doubt, doubt,
shoe’s gonna drop sometime

Hope is a cloudburst of love.

Waiting is the tension in the
tight bud of unknowns

Hope is Spring. The Great Mother.
The stars. Winds of change.

Hope is fertile and dreamy.
Waiting is heavy.

I remember the weighting—
how the pounds piled up in those
peri-meno pandemic days

Hope is never abandoning myself again.
Waiting is needing validation—
someone outside to approve or change

Hope is the lighthouse,
the bridge, the pathway
home