For the New Year, 1981, 2024

Denise Levertov,1923-1997, American born Britain.

published in Making Peace, anti-war poems.  New Directions Publishing, 2006

 

 

 

Detail of Ice Drawing, 2012, installation consisting of video (color, silent, projected through structure) and structure with metal armature and hanging crystals.

Joan Jonas, American born 1936. Loaned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to MOMA, NY in 2018

 

 

I have a small grain of hope—
one small crystal that gleams
clear colors out of transparency.

 

 

as above

 

I need more.

I break off a fragment
to send you.

 

 

 

as above

 

 

Please take
this grain of a grain of hope
so that mine won’t shrink.

 

 

as above

 

 

Please share your fragment
so that yours will grow.

 

 

 

The Path through the Irises, 1914-1917, oil on canvas.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

The artist cultivated more than forty varieties of irises at his estate in Giverney. 

 

 

Only so, by division,
will hope increase,

 

 

as above

 

like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower

 

 

as above

 

unless you distribute

 

 

as above

 

the clustered roots, unlikely source—

 

 

as above

 

clumsy and earth-covered—

 

 

as above

 

of grace.

 

 

as above