Poem for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Today’s poem is The Trees by Philip Larkin (1922-1985). Click this link to read the poem, or to hear it read aloud by the author.

Philip Larkin’s poetry often has more than a hint of despair and disappointment, so it is refreshing to find him ending here on a really  hopeful even defiant note! 

We need that defiant hope more than ever now, but it’s not something we can work up for ourselves.                                         

In your prayer this week ask God for the gift of hope.                    

God says: I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it…….. See, I am making all things new.                      

Ask to see things afresh.

Ask to see any signs of hope  –  buds that can burst into new green leaves and blossoms!                        

TL