hope comes into a room
Hope comes into a room, sits in a chair, watches our faces.
We do not trust her. She holds a flickering candle in her hands.
A little light for the heavy hearted, she says.
We are sewing garments which may or may not be armour.
In the dark, we cannot tell. Should we give a little more at the seams?
Hope holds up her candle, saying, ‘leave room for me’.
But we hear Hope is sick; her candle flame gutters,
And there are true stories being told in the dark,
Of all the deaths she has suffered in the world.
So we make our garments fit close to the skin, seams all stiff,
And we sew ourselves into them, which is a tight comfort,
For when Hope leaves the room they will serve in our defences.
mand said,
September 22, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Love this, stands reading more than once. More than twice… heck, more than several times. 80)
Found you via Adrian Graham and i’m glad i did! Wasn’t there a recent story about wild things…? can’t find it again in your archive. I’m doing something wrong!
thebeardedlady said,
September 22, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Hello Mand and welcome! Glad you found me.
The wild things… oops! Sorry about that. I put it up last night and then took it down this morning, having decided it was too… something… I may put it back up again in the next few days if I decide it is less… whatever…!
mand said,
September 22, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Well, i liked it 80) but then i did read it quickly ;0)
Suzan Abrams said,
September 22, 2008 at 10:18 pm
My favourite, TBL!
thebeardedlady said,
September 25, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Thanks Suzan, mand. Sorry I’m being so slow at putting new stuff up at the moment. I’m working on some longer pieces and various other things, but I will try to catch up here soon!
Suzan Abrams said,
September 27, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Hi TBL,
Looking forward to any of your writing when you do have time to post something up but only when you’re ready. Please don’t feel pressured. I’ve place your site on Google Reader so I’ll know if you have anything new up in the weeks/months to come.
Have fun writing.
Suzan Abrams said,
September 27, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I’ve place…
Sorry that was… I’ve placed…
Jim Murdoch said,
November 18, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I groaned when I read the first line, prejudging I know but we readers do that, but I’d started so I thought I may as well finish; it grew on me and improved on a second read. The reason I groaned is that these personification pieces are a), a bit old-fashioned and b) – probably because of a) – a bit hard to pull off but I think you do a good job here. Quite impressed actually.
thebeardedlady said,
November 18, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Thanks Jim Murdoch. I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment, especially given your initial impressions. I’m no poet, but this one was visited upon me by the Divine Goddess Muse, so it had to be written, know what I mean?