Gifts come in many shapes and guises:
Apples meant to nurture seeds
Wind up in many strange disguises,
Ministering to other needs.

When a new soul comes into being,
Hope anew springs from the Earth:
No one has the gift of seeing
What new gift comes with each birth.

What brings a young girl savage pain
Can bring joy to a man and wife:
One cannot weigh the loss or gain,
But one can always treasure life.

Life's a gift beyond what we
Can know or understand or say:
There's a nonstop ecstasy
Beneath the hum of every day.

There's a love so radical
That nothing can escape its glow,
Luminous and magical,
Everywhere we are or go.

And so we take this gift of love,
A little piece of it, new-born,
And feel some lovely fortune move
Within us towards eternal dawn.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon