Israeli poet, Yehuda Amichai (whose birthday was yesterday) wrote this striking line:
...hope needs to be like barbed wire to keep out despair...
For those who think hope is a facile, fragile thing, Amichai's description is arresting because it makes us reconsider the toughness and paradox of this mindset.
Cynics and pessimists might dismiss hope as a too-easy emotion when, in fact, the contrary, is true. Cynicism is the cop out. To believe in the goodness of people and life, despite the trials and hardships we are presented with, that is the harder thing to do.
This life breaks our heart... open, if we're lucky. It's my wish that my meditation/personification of Hope might resonate with you and inspire you never to lose faith.
Here's another poem of mine:
The Light-keepers
Hope is a lighthouse
(or, at least, a lamppost)
someone must keep vigil
to illumine this possibility
In the dark, a poet will climb
narrow, unsteady stairs
to gaze past crashing waves
and sing us new horizons
Others, less far-sighted, might
be deceived by the encroaching night
mistake the black for lasting, but
not those entrusted with trimming wicks
Their tasks are more pressing—
winding clockworks, replenishing oil-
there is no time for despair
when tending to the Light.
