Dickinson describes a visceral imagery that represents hope in her poem “Hope is the thing with feathers”.
Thinking is inherently metaphorical and what comes to my mind is:
Hope is something deep within us that braves the toughest conditions.
It’s a weak flame that persists and flickers against a harsh wind.
It will always struggle, no matter how unsightly, to exist despite what odds may be stacked against it.
That fire grows and warms us through the coldest days.
It is a coziness that protects us from the cruelty of life.
It’s the embrace of a mother who would do anything for her child,
It’s a comfort found within our deepest fears,
And it exists without a cost.
Hope is the fight that we can paradoxically rely on when we have given up.
Waleed Mujib is an MS1 at the Perelman School of Medicine.
Art by Millie Huang, an MS1 at the Perelman School of Medicine.
