Choose

I want to be able to say as you say 
              that something has purpose, 
is needed, will come to no harm.
               I think that rather than belief,
this is called active hope—action
               being a setting forth in 
motion, the carrying out of an act,
               a deed. As when a father
wraps himself around his child 
               as they cross the border, 
hiding in the boot of a car; as when 
              a guard peers in then shuts 
the trunk, waves to the sentry 
              at the gate as he yells All clear, 
nothing here! and we know that each 
              of them carried such a seed, 
each one had a moment to decide 
              what he could do with it.