Poems of Hope Contest: A gift, Jeffrey Rensch

Jeffrey Rensch has been writing poetry for 50 years.  He is not a big fan of free verse. Previous poems of his on Poems for Persons of Interest include "Being," "Carol of disarray," and "Thank you for the shivering," which won the Thanksgiving Poetry Contest last year.


A gift

Existence by itself is such a gift,

It’s almost too valuable to be opened.

And who rejects it? Even the rejection

Is something that existence offers up,

Embracing its own enemies somehow.


Utter depression wishes not to be

Yet still exists – there is a pulling tide

Of goodness underneath the pain, perhaps

Making it worse. Must the despair exist?

It nourishes a hope it doesn’t want

Or says it doesn’t. Yet suppose beneath

The misery there lay a bed of joy,

Not to be this or this but just to be,

hoping against all hope to be dug free.

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