Hope
Hope, I have always had hope
Blurred too much now to feel or drive
Over the empty scope of my perception
Does this mean that hope has vanished
Or is kept hidden by the war that rages
In my life, what I admit, little there is of it.
Hope is just a concept I always remind myself and
The fears of all days are just a dream
Of all kinds, not simple, I must fight and go on
As I do every moment, do what I can crippled and blind
My hopes have been crushed, but I stumble and strive
To free myself from this evil in ways
That must succeed, even if every evil that could be known
Or unknown is yet to come. I will have no mercy now
And do what precisely is the light, sparing none blessing
Or destruction. I hope against the battles glare that I
Have reached and touched the final hope of peace
In this cursed and half glimmering trail of tears
That’s led me to such certainty and sooths
My uncertainties, its fate, not anyone’s fears but
Nightmare come out underneath the sun and is
Your own hopes now both the sweet and the undone
Unknown are the ways of what yet is yet to come
The dark has nurtured seed before, of hope when hope is done.
Saul Scudder 2002