<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Beginners</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Dedicated to the memory of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralla</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">“From too much love of living,</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Hope and desire set free,</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Even the weariest river</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Winds somewhere to the sea -“</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">But we have only begun</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">To love the earth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">We have only begun</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">To imagine the fullness of life.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">How could we tire of hope?</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">- so much is in bud.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">How can desire fail?</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">- we have only begun</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">to imagine justice and mercy,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">only begun to envision</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">how it might be</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">to live as siblings with beast and flower,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">not as oppressors.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Surely our river</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">cannot already be hastening</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">into the sea of nonbeing?</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Surely it cannot</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">drag, in the silt,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">all that is innocent?</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Not yet, not yet -</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">there is too much broken</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">that must be mended,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">too much hurt we have done to each other</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">that cannot yet be forgiven.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">We have only begun to know</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">the power that is in us if we would join</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">our solitudes in the communion of struggle.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">So much is unfolding that must</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">complete its gesture,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">so much is in bud.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Denise Levertov</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>