From Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, “If You Have Nothing”
The gesture of a gift is adequate
If you have nothing: laurel leaf or bay,
no flower, no seed, no apple gathered late,
do not in desperation lay
the beauty of your tears upon the clay.
…
No gift is proper to a Deity;
no fruit is worthy for such power to bless.
If you have nothing, gather back your sign,
and with your hands held high, your heart held high,
lift up your emptiness!