Written piece
The Audacity of Hope
PAULOS HLWAELA
South Africa
About this piece
This poem is about the power of hope, about how hope is found almost everywhere and helps and touches almost everyone. this poem threads together the stories and possibilities that hope carries in our lives.
The Audacity of Hope
Hope begins with a dream
It begins--
in the crackle of firelight
where freedom songs redeem.
It’s the song of slaves by firelight,
it’s the steel in a mother’s prayer,
where freedom sang across the moss
the grit in a father’s stare.
It’s the immigrant’s trembling footstep
on shores unknown and wide,
the soldier’s steady courage
the courage of a soldier’s watch
where shadows dare to hide
where shadows fall between.
It’s the millworker’s quiet defiance,
the child who breaks the mold,
the skinny kid with a funny name –
a name they mocked
whose story must be told.
who dared to touch the sky.
For in this hour, this sacred now,
we hold the nation's rope
not with fear, but with fire
with the audacity of hope.
We believe in homes for the homeless,
in jobs for hands grown still,
in reclaiming youth from violence,
in bending fate to will.
So stand with me at history’s gate,
where choices carve the land,
and let our voices rise as one,
with hope held in our hands.
So let us stand at history’s edge
and choose the higher way,
to lift the weary, feed the poor,
and shape a brighter day.
For in this hour, this sacred now,
we choose the path we tread—
not cynicism’s hollow echo,
but the light that lies ahead.