Hope & Faith

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Hope & Faith

Poem — An Invocation to the Master #293

Bah, begone prophet of hope!
Peddler of oils curing nothing,
Dreaming a cure in every herb
And in each root some healing,

Piety’s charlatan to dupe the gullible,
A tinsel halo sanctimoniously wearing,
A glib counsellor to every fool,
The preacher to every dullard dreaming,

Oasis-conjurer for imaginary deserts,
Of the alchemy of nothing the producer,
Offering fruits for unarriving futures;
Hope, thou art the perennial deceiver!

Ah Faith, queen, wiser than mind,
To deception of senses unheeding,
To thy arms we ever tend,
A salve is thy silence ever soothing.

Thine the vision that sees
Through the blindness of our tread,
By thee the heart conceives 
The cherished end lying concealed.

Empress and mistress,
Consort of the soul,
By thee is endured time’s duress,
By thee is knowledge made whole.

I have banished forever the prophet of hope,
O Faith, my queen, by thy hands alone my soul shall sup.