Living Tree Poetry

If there is no peace
then hoist high the flag.

If there is no joy
then draw from the spring.

If there is no hope,
then remember when

you first dropped your sheaves
in despair of your yield.

And instead,
just imagine

if they might be seeds spread
for next year’s return.

If there is no love
then dream it into being.

If there is no faith
then let the fallow ground rest.

If there is no light
then remember when,

the long night was revealed
as a prelude to the dawn.

And, instead of despair
just imagine

how the dawns return
might stir,

buried seeds
to awakening.

If there is no freedom
then claim it in love’s name.

And if there is no point
then replace doubt with a reason.

And if there is no grace
then recall how

the grace you were first shown
was undeserved.

And instead,
remember

how we do not have to be released from pain
to forgive.

How forgiveness in itself
can harbour hope in its wake.

Just imagine.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
August 2018

‘Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—
perhaps it all will.’
Ecclesiastes 11:6