SONG OF HOPE

The painting Song of Hope is by our friend, the great Thomas Houseago.

Yesterday, my husband received this poem in his Red Hand Files from Ellen in Gisborne, New Zealand. It is written by the Malaysian poet, Cecil Rajendra. He asked me to post it on the Stuff Page. I asked him why he liked it and he said he liked the blackness of it – the panther and the obsidian hopes of children – and the image of the morning sun rising on the poem itself. Thank you, Ellen. We adore these gifts. Love, Susie x

 

Song of Hope

 

At that hour

when the sun

slinks off

behind hills

and night

– a panther-

crouches

ready to spring

upon our un-

suspecting city. . .

i want to sing

the coiled desires

of this land

the caged dreams

of forgotten men

i want to sing

of all that was

but no longer is

of all that

never was but

could have been

i want to sing

the obsidian

unspelled hopes

of our children

i want to sing

to remind us

never to despair

that every hour

every minute

somewhere on the face

of this earth

it is glorious morning.

 

Malaysian poet, Cecil Rajendra