Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know <br />what despair is; then <br />winter should have meaning for you. <br /> <br />I did not expect to survive, <br />earth suppressing me. I didn't expect <br />to waken again, to feel <br />in damp earth my body <br />able to respond again, remembering <br />after so long how to open again <br />in the cold light <br />of earliest spring-- <br /> <br />afraid, yes, but among you again <br />crying yes risk joy <br /> <br />in the raw wind of the new world.<br /><br />Louise Gluck<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/snowdrops/
