Pat Schneider
Hope Is Not a Thing
God, I bow down.
I don’t understand.
The world we love
strains to the point
of exhaustion.
Mercy thins, hope
is not a thing with
feathers. It is a gold
trinket in a crow’s
nest, out of reach.
Teacher, teach us.
We have been here
before. The story’s
end is hidden in
a cloud of future.
Our minds fail us.
Assail us, O God.
The world falls apart.
The only hope now
is the human heart.
Pat Schneider‘s most recent book is How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice (Oxford University Press, 2013). Her work has appeared in Chrysalis, Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal, Minnesota Review, Ms., New York Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, Sewanee Review, The Sun, and Thema, among others. Pat is the founder of Amherst Writers & Artists, an international network of workshop leaders who use the writing method described in Pat’s book, Writing Alone and With Others (Oxford University Press, 2003). For her work with underserved populations, Pat has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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