SIFAR...nothingness

❁ Hope ❁

This is the entry for the Poetry Contest for February 2019 - February has affection, where we had to write a poem on hope in any style we liked. My submission is inspired by a quote by Friedrich Nietzche:

It is said to be a thing with many a feather,
A merry bird that flits from tree to tree,
And just when you think you've got it together,
It slips from your hands, to fly away free.

It is a butterfly with gossamer wings,
Tantalising you with hazy dreams,
When your steps falter, afresh it springs,
And you endure, silencing those screams.

When you are shrouded in the darkest night,
It is the door in the distance, left slightly ajar,
Promising lands and lives, new and bright,
You stumble and run, uncaring that it is so far.

Hope is a glowing candle in the breeze,
And a feeble flickering light it does cast,
In shadows, who knows what one sees,
And you create a world that does not last.

In shifting sands of time, it rises like a mirage,
Creates pretty illusions, fragile and ephemeral,
It is an ugly cruelty, wearing a pretty visage,
You clutch it to your bosom, thinking it is real.

Hope revels as virtue yet only mocks,
And it is shunned by every vice,
Which is why it lay in Pandora's box,
Hiding with spite, misery and malice.

It never lets you stop when you should,
For hope, in a tight strangle hold has you,
Waiting and hanging on is not always good,
And yet you cling, when you should let go.

Hope is ambrosia, a honeyed treat,
Buried in petals soft, of a fragrant flower,
Alive you feel, drinking its nectar sweet,
Though you die a little with each passing hour.

________________________________

So that was my entry - a little long-winded at 257 words

March 1, 2019 - And this won the third place :-)