Brown Teapot Raises Hope-Refreshed

As you start a new home, I pass on this teapot,

brown-glazed, old and squat, unlovely, yes. . .

But it's more than a receptacle for tea,

having long experience in brewing endurance,

containing patience and dispensing courage.

Clasp trembling hands about this treasure

when the need asserts itself.

Over a steaming cup the lump of grief ---

intolerable at times ---

softens, and bitterness dissolves.

With clearer eyes one looks

through this amber well at truth,

and rises hope-refreshed.

Unfailingly with me it has been thus. . .

with you also let it be.

Anonymous poem