Winter Does Not Have the Last Word

Was The Grass Really Ever  Green?    

“Was the grass really ever green

Were the sounds of birds really clearly heard

And did we picnic in the park only six months ago

Here in midwinter they seem so far away

The naked trees, the laden skies seems always to have been

And seem out ahead for all time

Were things really ever green

And will spring come back again?

Yes, the spring will return

The gray, dull days of cold will pass

The routine now imprisoning us will be broken up

Anew excitement will be awakened by new possibilities

The despair which now engulfs us will subside

A word of hope will come to us

Our presumption that all is lost

  will be replaced by a renewed expectancy

Future will become a possibility again

The crush of demands will not dominate us forever

Out of liberation we will learn to choose

And in our choices to be secure.

The sadness now weighing upon us will be lifted

Joy will speak her acknowledgment of grief

  and will sound her call to us

The cause of sadness will not have vanished

But joy will come in spite of it

We will laugh again

We will sing and dance

We will celebrate the life now given to us.

The conflicts now engaging our energy

   will be worked through

No wind will sweep them from us

We will go through them

And we will survive

Redemption will come of our transactions

Relationships will be rescued and restored

And where breaks are too deep to be one,

Healing will come in time, though apart

The tensions tearing at our being will be resolved

We will not be destroyed.

Were things really ever green

And will the spring come back again

Yes, yes as sure as e’re it were here

Yes, yes, assure as winter’s here

Yes, yes, as sure as God is

The spring will return

And it will be green again.

   --G. Temp Sparkman

(I have given this poem to members of my Grief Group. I think it offers hope in a very hard time. It was written by a father after the loss of her daughter with leukemia.)