Breaking Hope Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

Ere we at time’s dispense,
Feeble is the man’s arm,
In good fortune an hour naught
Nor recalls an hour lost.
Breaking hope, fleeting free;
Mighty and dreadful, dies the death.
The chant of life in miseries untold,
From fear’s circle into the unknown.
From fate’s vagaries to the oceans’ depth
Shoulders strong and mantle of faith.
Vision’s limits, to the blind man’s fancy,
Beauty’s perfect to imperfection.
From slave to master, freed when caught,
From sleep and slumber, eternal awake.
The reason’s specter to intuitive bliss
Belief’s narrow, love’s embrace.
Cathedral, sanctuary and temple,
Heart is holy, leave the rest.
A life imagined, sans the world,
None shall die, love so alike.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
March 1,2013.

Maria Ines, Santiago, Photograph: Penrith Regional Gallery@penrithregional.org