Anticipation Poem

Tender Tansitions Poetry Week

When I was little, I found ways to get around my everyday worries by using my imagination—by thinking of something I was so excited about, so looking forward to, that I’d fall to sleep a little more peacefully.

To be honest, I’m still that way—using my mind and my heart to dream and imagine something that’s on the horizon, something that is yet to come but it steadily approaching.

The work of anticipation can be really wonderful, can’t it?

The word anticipate comes from Latin and means to take something into consideration, the work of acting in advance.

So in my poem today, I’m running with that idea: the embodiment of anticipation.

But first, a few images to spark our imaginations. These are images that come up when I search stock photos for our poetry prompt words, which is always an interesting exercise.

So, images for “anticipation”

Photo by Joonas Sild on Unsplash

Photo by Simone Eufemi on Unsplash

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

We act like our future
hopes and dreams 
are just that— something
that is far off, unattainable,
something we hope and pray
will show up at some point.

But with anticipation, we
recognize that right here,
right now, we are in the work
of those very hopes and those
tender, unrealized dreams.

Right now, we are creating
the very fabric of a life that
is built with sacred love,
with tender care, rooted in
gorgeous belonging.

There is no “tomorrow”
when we find the sacred
right here in our very
heart center, right here
where we are waiting
for a sign that we
are truly loved.

We anticipate it, and
in that, we act on it
with our very bodies,
creating right now 
the life that we will have
tomorrow and the
day after that,
for every generation
who asks who they
one day hope to be.