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Reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno,
In gloom cries today’s time: O there’s no scope
For whoso lives, abandon all the hope.
Maybe he’d reasons enough to think so.

Yet, if body’s in need of oxygen,
Human spirit too such life-force no less—
Timeless hope that enlarges horizon—
In its pursuit life’s been an endless chase. 

O Hope, open up that vast horizon,
Unfold thine endless vista of future,
Lest past keep peeping oh in desperation,
Over despair do show thine true stature.

The Pandemic’s pegged us to a prison
Wherefrom there’s seen today no escape door,
Nor hope’s seen in our limited vision,
Let our present look imperfect no more.

There’s dearth of dope and short-tethered is rope,
Humanity’s caught in jaws of Despair—
A desperate and vile sibling of Hope,
O life-force, gasping we’re for some fresh air. 

Seeing us desperate for dope called Hope
That would goad us to hang on, to go on,  
Avows despair: it’s pointless, parched of scope,
Give up, let go, let hope no more ye con. 

Beware howls Hope, I’m no massage parlour,
Take it not so easy, nor yet relax,
Nor am I a lazy session of sex,
Let no despair dawn ye to enamour.

Keep to the rigour of a stern workout,
Painstaking training plan, profuse to sweat,
Let not Despair plant a seed, germ of doubt,
Should ye to keep with destiny your date.

Yet, to a drowning desperate a man,
These metaphors seem to be of li’le use,
They being no more than a soothing fan,
Hope can’t on very own in vacuum muse.

So, Hope, time’s ripe, down to descend and dare,  
Oh where art thou in this time of despair?
If Hope and Healing does hail in good faith,
So too together dance Despair and Death!

If to despair be to ask for death rope,
Isn’t mere hoping for hope, a heedless dope? 
Better to hope than to despair, Goethe said,
If jewel, not jacinth, let me have jade!
 
If wise, O better mingle the twain’s two:
Never do thou hope without despairing,
Nor yet despair without at once hoping,
Seneca sang— views all his own and new.

Shakespeare too to the same theme hits—
Where hope is cold and despair better fits….
So did Cowper: Absence of loved one’s death,
If hope frustrates, have in despair your faith.

Yet I’d say, a forward gear’s always fair,
And never fan the flames O of despair,
Rather, ignite the spark of hope instead,
If hope’s eternal so is despair’s dread.
_________________________________________
Ode |20.05.2021|
Poet’s note: COVID pandemic rages still, hitting with its more lethal second wave. Most of the developing world is experiencing shortage of hospital beds, medical staff, frontline help, medicines, and oxygen. Yet, what is in utmost short supply in these desperate times is hope above all else, whilst despair is taking over.
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