Hope is the culmination of wanting
something you cannot have
and believing, despite the odds,
that it is within your reach
For so long, I held on to hope
–the dreams held there, just out of reach–
I believed in “just rewards,”
that with “hard work,” you could achieve.
But life designed a different route
rife with detours, twists and turns–
with illness, loss and so much pain
so easy to veer off the course,
so hard to find that path again.
Like the sailor men of yore
lost inside a starless night
with no sightline back to shore,
there is no going back in time
…just another storm to face
just another hill to climb.
© Ginny Brannan 2026
