Poem: Between Two Breaths

Hope is simple and basic. It is the will to live.

Poem: Between Two Breaths

Hope is like a drug
That little confidence
after breathing out
That we will breathe in again
Till we can’t —
When hope leaves us, we die.
We don’t even know that
we live in hope.

All that we have made
The buildings and aircraft
The letters and the verses
The gardens and the cities
All are extensions of this hope.

Between the breaths
We want to live.
A life of plenty and prosperity.
Of bountiful outcomes.
Of health and happiness.

In some sense, we believe
That we will live forever.
Immortality is hope.
Life is a longing.

Some may point to a purpose
A higher calling or
submission to a divinity.
Karma or Duty, they say —
or Bhakti or Piety
But there is something
more basic than this —
The will to live.

Hope is that will to live.
Rank and respect this
Above all else — for,
That is our right —
Every human, every being
Fights for that little space
between two breaths.
Just the act of being.
That is perhaps
What we call humanity.

~Ashok Subramanian © 2025

hashtag#poetry hashtag#poem hashtag#hope hashtag#faith hashtag#life hashtag#human hashtag#humanity