Life and Hope

A poem dedicated to the victims of the Windrush scandal, even if the connection, for many, may not be obvious. The gift of hope is as important as the gift of life and that gift is something, when done by a UK government, for example, of which we can all be proud. When something shameful is done by the UK government, and we say or do nothing, then we must share that shame. We have the means to give hope to so many…

Life and Hope

Hope springs eternal in each human breast

Providing a purpose to the living

Whether that life is lived with zest

Or simply for the pleasure of giving

Wherever there is hope there is life

And wherever there is life there is hope

In what may seem like a world of strife

People, amazingly, find some way to cope

Hope is that which makes man strive

Through expectation of a life superior

It is that which makes all societies thrive

And renders the present, for them, inferior

Knowing that nothing in life is static

We move towards a fatal finality

Expressed by the spiritual as a state ecstatic

Or by non-believers as funereal reality

As the expectant couple hopes for life

When the time has come to make that decision

The logic of becoming husband and wife

Needs no greater, nor more subtle, precision

There is no such thing as the “self-made man”

We all have need of timely opportunity

There is no preferred or pre-ordained plan

Except that which is granted by one’s own community

Some might say that one can be one’s own master

That there is no limit to man’s achievement

We are only required to move a little faster

Than those who await their own bereavement

Is there always hope in in the torment of competition?

In a world of losers and winners

Equality of opportunity is cited in repetition

Yet the triumphant are seldom seen as sinners

So, let us find profit in the hope of others

Their lives, enriched, give us greater wealth

They need not be our sisters or brothers

Nor struggle in a service to sustain our health

Pursuit of happiness is no zero-sum game

Their contentment should never generate sadness

Their mirth is rarely a reason for blame

Their joy can’t diminish our gladness

We must be thankful to the souls unknown

To those to whom we can give no name

To the innocent men by the west wind blown

They came in hope – not in fear or shame

It is they who have shown perseverance

Our diversity is no slippery slope

Let’s grant fellow beings a deeper reverence

And hope through life and life through hope

…………………………….Dedicated to the victims of the Windrush scandal

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