"When Giving Is All We Have" by Alberto Rios

It's been a wonderful National Poetry Month, and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed sharing these superb poets and their beautiful words. For our last post of the month, let's look at a profoundly tender piece by Albert Rios (previously here) called "When Giving Is All We Have."

When Giving Is All We Have
by Alberto Rios

One river gives
Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

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