HOPE’S PROMISE

by John Herlihy

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings:
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
—Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 5, scene 2


One day, hope unexpectedly knocked on my door.
“Howdy,” he said, “how ya doin’ this fine day.”
All casual, like a greeting of the neighbor next door
It was enough to remember what he had to say,
Like clinging to a life raft, floating my desires to shore.
He leaned across the threshold and whispered into my ear,
All kinds of sweet nothings enough to expel my unending fear.

It is one thing to rely on hope’s premonitions to understand
And quite another to meet him and his bounty firsthand.
Like a true brother in friendship, making promises for keeping,
He was always at hand with various benefits for reaping.
He took me by the hand and gestured for me to follow
I stumbled along behind him, feeling humbled and hollow.

Hope followed me around as I went about my business;
I thought I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye,
Watching over everything I do as a form of kindness,
Even though I sometimes fell into a funk on the sly,
Feeling the pressure of failure, lack of foresight and loss
And all my dumb misjudgments that control me like a boss.
When all else fails, hope will still come calling,
Even when misfortune strikes and we are on the floor bawling.

Who am I all the world at my feet to desire.
Hoping for love, fame and success to set me on fire.
Hope arrives at my doorstep with feelings that never expire,
Keeping me on my way as though dressed in full attire.
What have I done to deserve the honor of such a bountiful sire,
With nuggets of hope enough to last me a lifetime in any quagmire?

Thank hope for being there behind every wall and tree.
It’s enough that hope stays in the distance watching over me,
Creating the illusion that I am on my own and free,
When in fact I really need his help for every x, y, and z.
When all else fails and my world stops turning,
Hope is there everywhere with its emotions stirring,
A gift wrapped in the ribbons of promise and yearning.

Choose your perch within the tree of your potentiality;
Let hope or hopelessness be the measure of mankind’s humanity,
Shining the light of day on everything without any inequality.
Hope hovers in the distance, star-lit in the darkness,
While despair lurks in the depths, bereft of any kindness.
Hope suggests stillness rather than the movement of a dance;
Hope offers promise rather than the piercing of a lance.
A ghost of a thing, it raises not a speck of dust.
It sits quietly on the horizon with its simple trust.

Despair lies within the sunset marking the descent of night,
Invading the pitch darkness without any hope of respite.
Clown-faced despair, with its hand-painted inverse smile,
A visage now sodden with remorse stretched half a mile.
Despair leaves hope abandoned at the gates of Hell;
Hope given way to despair, defiled like a body full of rashes;
Despair cried at the sight of its smoldering ashes;
Despair crippled, having lost the force of its stride;
Attempting to use crutches to negotiate the slide,
Now fallen vain-gloriously from its posture of pride.

Hope sits on the horizon, its feet hanging carelessly over the edge,
Gazing into the depths of the universe seeking its rite of passage,
Ready to stare into the abyss with no fixed boundary or limits,
Hope knows no fear and takes no heed of the minutes.
Ready to draw all and sundry through the magic of its sieve;
Without the hopeful intentions of people it cannot live.
Hope exudes a certainty that things will make sense,
Regardless of how events may turn out in recompense.

If faith sings the faintest of praises
Of an almighty God higher than we;
Then hope is a bird with feathers and trills,
Ready to turn its eternal promise into curative pills,
Warming the heart of humanity with its recurring glow,
Sharing its soul in the river of its miraculous flow.
Hope, like the stars, shine eternally,
Illuminating the darkness of the night with impunity,
With a faint, far-reaching, yet penetrating light,
A clear expression if there ever was one of God’s infinite might.

I live in hope, which is all a person has need of.
It is common enough, a thing all people take heed of.
People the world over often sing its praise;
A single hope can erase the darkest despair in a maze,
A shining light reflected in a solitary pearl,
Ridding us of pain and pestilence with the flair of an earl,
Hunger and suffering, we have had enough,
The hand of hope sends packing all that terrible stuff.

What is hope but a flowering tree,
Letting us know that our existence is to be,
None other than hopeful that God’s bounty will set us free.
The hope of the bud lies in the flower that blooms;
The hope of the wood lies in the fire that burns;
The hope of the crystal is to become a flake of snow;
The hope of the land is to be cultivated by the gardening hoe;
The hope of the spider lies in the strength of its hand-made web;
The hope of the hibernating bear lies in its wintry bed.
The hope of the mirage lies in the miracle of its satisfaction;
The hope of the rainbow lies in the mystery of its refraction;
The hope of the moon lies in the message on its stages;
The hope of the seasons lies in their symbolism for the ages;
The hope of the sun lies in the light over the horizon;
The hope of the stars lies in the mystery of their illusion,
Of other worlds and other suns the universe to inhabit,
Turning our undying hope into the foot of a lucky rabbit.

Everything harbors an element of hope within its heart.
The hope of the grain lies in the stalks of golden wheat
Blowing like silken hair in the heaving breath of the wind
Hope’s warning lies in the stalking panther crouching on all fours
Hope’s promise sits on the wings of the eagle that soars.

Pure infancy blooms a few minutes like a flower,
Cooing and gurgling with surprising power.
Childhood’s brief moment takes places in a hour,
Happily chasing butterflies through the shadily-wooded bower.
Adulthood passes by its maturity in a day,
Pretending to justify existence by earning its pay;
Followed by old age and senility as we pass away.

Nothing stays the same but changes page by page
The mind’s attention wanders, the face of life frowns and fades,
The leaves of loyalty change their color and finally fall
But the secret hope of a faithful person outlives them all.
Hope overshadows all the evils that people endure;
The price is cheap for such a universal cure.

As unexpectedly as an uninvited guest hope arrived,
As quietly he prepared to take his leave without being spied.
This bird of paradise was fluffing his feathers,
Making ready to take flight through all types of weathers.
Hope must be invisible in order to make its mark,
Hope must be out of sight for people to take heed and hark.
No one hopes for what they already have,
People pine after what they don’t have and want so bad.

Some final advice with the wisdom of an owl,
Hope whispered delicately into my expectant ear.
Secrets of life that will make despair howl,
So people can walk through their destiny with nothing to fear.

Though the day has the night as a perpetual shadow,
So the dawn trails the night revealing earth’s broad meadow.


When one’s hopes are realized they are no longer hopes;
They just float on water like a convoy of boats.

Make hope your faithful walking staff
To avoid the sting of the world’s deadly wrath.

Walk into the future on your lips a simple smile
You will find your true path far more than a mile.

A charm, a potion, a magic wand for every woe,
For all the terrible evils that the world may bestow.

Hope, however distant, is always a faint light;
Hope a flickering taper that illuminates our way at night.

If hope makes of me a prisoner,
A prisoner of hope I shall gladly be.
Why would I pay an exorbitant fee,
When hope’s simple embrace can set me free.

What is hope you have the temerity to ask?
Even thought I am now finished with my arduous task.
Hope is promise, what we call fair share;
Hope is trust, what we least of all can spare;
Hope is transcendental, living as a waking dream;
Hope is eternal, forever flowing as a living stream.

May hope alight on your finger with the wink of an eye,
Together you can fly far away into the deep blue sky.