Instructions for Planting Hope
By Natalie Harveld

Begin with the soil.
Use the broken kind,
the kind packed hard by boots and winter.

Turn it with your hands.
You will find stones.
You will find the small bones of last year’s things.
Leave them.
Everything feeds the ground eventually.

Plant something stubborn.
Beans, perhaps.
Or peas that climb whatever wall they meet.
Plant onions where the grief sat longest.
Plant thyme where your voice once failed.
Plant mint where the bitter stories gather.

Water daily, even if the sky refuses.
Even if the neighbours shake their heads
and say nothing grows here anymore.
Push seeds into the earth
as though tomorrow were possible.

Wait.
The smallest green insistence
will come first.

Things That Cross Borders Easily
By Natalie Harveld

Wind crosses first.
It slips the wire and the watchtower light,
runs laughing through wheat-fields,
and carries the dust of one country
into the mouth of another.

Birds cross next.
Their tiny bones write velvet maps
over mountains and rivers.
They read the sky like scripture
and answer only to the turning earth.

Rivers cross without asking.
They slide past fences,
wander through valleys and towns,
carry snowmelt, leaves, and old names
towards a patient sea.

Stories cross in secretive ways.
In pockets, in lullabies,
in recipes wrapped inside memory.
They pass from mouth to mouth
long after the journey is done.

Grief crosses easiest of all.
It needs no passport,
or careful stamping of paper.
It walks beside the living
and sits wherever they stop.

And hope.
Hope travels too,
hidden like seeds in the lining of a coat.

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Natalie Harveld (She/Her) is a British poet whose work explores motherhood, identity, and the beauty of everyday life. As an English teacher, she encourages teenagers to find their voices. She lives in the countryside with her husband and two children where inspiration is rarely in short supply.

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Artwork Source: Untitled, Anita Eralie Schley

Anita Eralie Schley graduated from the University of Utah in 1996 with BFA in Studio Art. In addition to having her work in a multitude of galleries and publications, she has also taught art through continuing education classes, an Alternative high school drawing class in Box Elder County, the college setting as an alternative photography processes substitute at Salt Lake Community College and was the photography program director for CLASS Art School. Anita is both a painter and a photographer and enjoys exploring different mediums in her artwork. She has received multiple awards throughout her career including most recently: Honorable Mention 2023 for the Workshop13 exhibit RED, Award of Merit 2022 Utah Women Artists Exhibit, Best of Show 2020 Box Elder Museum Photography group exhibit. She lives in Springville, Utah with her husband. She has four adult children and recently became a grandmother for the first time.