Risk Poem by Steven Federle

'Sooner or later... we have to risk everything in order to gain everything. We have to gamble on the invisible and risk all that we can see and taste and feel.” Thomas Merton

Soft autumn breezes,
hills: brown, blue, violet - black
moving to nothing.

risk it all, keep no-
thing in your hand; grasp thin air
and take everything.

taste your fears, salt-tears
sting your eyes; glare like the sun-
set on the last day.