Half the pleasure is in the hope
The child awake on Christmas night
Envisioning some unknown heights
Of bliss, awaiting first light
To awaken their scope.
Half the agony is in the fear,
The woman on the edge of labor pains,
With everything to lose, or to gain,
On the other end of unsustained,
Unmeasured anguish drawing near.
All that we anticipate
Always becoming half our fate.
viewingcamelot 
October 17th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
Thought provoking. If half of pleasure is Hope, what happens when one must abandon Hope? Is pleasure halved or increased?
October 18th, 2013 at 2:19 am
Well, first, thank you so much for reading it and thinking deep. 🙂 Many years, and tears, and prayers ago my answer would have been radically different than what it is now, but here goes: I don’t think anyone must ever abandon hope. Sometimes we have to change what or who we hope in, but never abandon hope itself. Hope is our courage to face life. I’m new to hope in many ways, but I’m trying to stop treating it like an enemy. 🙂
I wrote this a day or two ago because I realized when I fear things, whether or not they even occur, half of the harm is already being done. I suffer worse hiding from my fears than just letting them be what they will be. Hope works in inverse principle. So I wrote a little poem about it. 🙂 Thanks again for reading. 😀