Hope

by Edith Sodergran

I want to let go -
so I don't give a damn about fine writing,
I'm rolling my sleeves up.
The dough's rising...
Oh what a shame
I can't bake cathedrals...
that sublimity of style
I've always yearned for...
Child of our time -
haven't you found the right shell for your soul?

Before I die I shall
bake a cathedral.

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Some of us have been thinking and writing about hope; I thought I'd include a poem by that title. Ms. Sodergran was a Finn/Swede who wrote mostly in Swedish but also in Russian. She died at a young age of tuberculosis.

I think this poem expresses our desire to create something spectacular, something that might outlast us, through whatever skills or talents we might possess. Ms. Sodergran wants to give up that obsession, but admits that she cannot. I wonder if she realized that the poem itself is a little cathedral of hope.