—Sonia Nazario “Enrique’s Journey, Chapter Three, Defeated Seven Times, a Boy Again Faces ‘the Beast,’” Oct. 2, 2002.
***
HOLD ON TO WHAT IS GOOD
HOLD ON TO WHAT IS GOOD
EVEN IF IT IS
A HANDFUL OF EARTH.
HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU BELIEVE
EVEN IF IT IS
A TREE WHICH STANDS BY ITSELF.
HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU MUST DO
EVEN IF IT IS
A LONG WAY FROM HERE.
HOLD ON TO LIFE EVEN WHEN
IT IS EASIER LETTING GO.
HOLD ON TO MY HAND EVEN WHEN
I HAVE GONE AWAY FROM YOU.
—by Nancy Wood, from Many Winters, 1974.