I Keep Hopeful Poem by Eddie Rodgers

There are times in life where it seems that the dreams of which I have dreamt seem too far fetched that the life of mine too short to accomplish them all. Yet I keep being hopeful and mindful that thru perseverance and complete dedication that these dreams will one day become past memories of delight upon which I reflect with an open heart and tears of glee. The wondering of will I have touched someone in a special way that they will want to continue my work once my years here have long expired and the very air in my lungs has evaporated to nothing but a mistful stain upon my breath, yet I keep hope in mind thru this wondering confusing time. My mission in life is too bring hope to the little boy or girl that seems that there is no one in the world who hears their cry, with the days that go on and the months and years that slip by. To know that I too once stayed up at night because I felt misunderstood or was picked on because I didn’t do things the way a group of my peers did I remain hopeful that one of those children will hear my plea for them to listen to me and allow me into their world of corruption and turmoil, to validate and ease their pain. I am mindful of the journey of which I have come to pass and upon the adventures I will encounter and explore in the years or days that follow, the blood of which I have shed for these dreams and the tears of heartache and pain don’t go unnoticed in my eyes or book because they have stained the pillow of my eternal life. Like the rain that has fell upon my window pane drenching everything around it that’s what I want to be. I want my thoughts to fall from the clouds like the drops of a raging storm, soaking everything it comes into contact with then and only then everyone would know my thoughts because it would seep into their skin, in these drops I remain hopeful. Like the rain I know in my heart that I cant touch everyone and I must admit that it does bother me because I want everyone to feel these dreams that I have in store for the world to wish me luck in every attempt that I do to bring life to a memory of sleep as they say. There are times I often grow weary tired, then going to bed with a mind full of thoughts but I remain hopeful. I am mindful that the light of which we call opportunity has not at always shined in the eyes of certain individuals that they have become just as blind as a man walking with a white cane tapping his surroundings, but I remain hopeful that one day those who aren’t able to see wont be blind that those who cant hear wont be cheated at the fact being informed of their surroundings because their ears are dead to the world, instead give the man who’s blind the gift of hearing you and the man who cant hear the gift of seeing you fulfill the dream that has become a distant thought to us all. Yes I grow hopeful. For it is with these dreams that my mind has stayed alive and my heart continued to beat on in a time when it felt compressed with the weight of the world upon it blocking the flow of everything to leave and come in. There are times when I revisit the darkened pit of which I had come to know so well until someone gave me a rag and begun to wipe the mud from my face. It smell s of musk and mildew dripping water and the aroma of death lingers in the air surrounding each corridor lapsing in the mind. Then I see a little boy and he lays down face first in the filth unable to pick up his head because he lacks the confidence and it is at this moment I stare into his eyes and notice that they are the same brown eyes of which I have looked out of each day for the past 21 years yet they say not a word or speak, they cry out to my heart and ears fasten to each intention and admiration. It is with that look that those eyes have said more meaningful things to me then anyone could have ever told me in a life time, that I take upon his struggle and he reminds of the places that I have been and says Eddie don’t relax now we have yet so far to go that the journey is never over until God says so. Like a soldier going to into war knowing the ultimate sacrifice he may have to make before everything is done and over I am aware. I am aware that I may never see the intentional end of the very dream that I have encountered so many times behind closed eyes and faith that there is a repeating scene of the little boy seeing more and more light every day until his vision is no longer blocked and cascaded down upon the ground of which all his hopes and thoughts one day laid, but rather he takes his step down a long road of endless journeys and then one day he comes to an abrupt halt knowing that this will be his final exit off a stretch of hopefulness that the world he indeed made a better place and just before he gives into the fact that there is nothing left for him to achieve but rather hand the torch off to someone else he’ll look towards the sky and say, “ When there comes to be a day when parts of me begin to break away, and I’m all but seconds from being depleted I just want to say thank you lord for this day because all the tasks you have given me I have finally completed.


Eddie Rod.