Joy Lives

Joy lives 
like a Jonquil in winter,
just beneath the surface
and still very alive.
Invisible sometimes, yes-
here memory assists
(of a pitcher filled with
sunny blooms
on the old farm kitchen table.)
Inaudible, maybe, yes...
we supply our own song.
And then, as promised, yes,
full fragrance, color, light
rise through the pregnant darkness,
lifting higher into Yes.
Joy lives, poised
in all that is possible, yes,
and the sweet splendor of the now.
That is to say, oh yes
here and forever-more.

~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
from What Holds Us