Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

On the Impossibility of Hope…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Depression and Hope,Existential Pets,Friendship & Compassion,Life & Death,Love and Romance,Uncategorized — Bob at 8:27 pm on Wednesday, January 4, 2017

On the Impossibility of Hope

By Robert M. Katzman © January 4, 2016 

***

Sometimes nothing works out

You live your life

Hope for friends

Hope to be healthy

Hope to be happy

And

(a really big hope)

Try to fall in love

With someone as they are

***

And, in turn

Be loved as you are

You, without disguises

You, sometimes without a clue

You, with no idea where you are going

You, more than a little

Shy of visionary

You, without the certainty

Of

Knowing what to offer

***

But finding a real friend?

A friend who rises to

The worst of occasions

A friend who doesn’t

Need mere you to

Spell out every heartbreak

Who sees in you what

Virtually no one else can see

Who wants to share

The best of times

Yours and theirs

and

Because you being there

Makes anything better

Well, this sort of relationship

May be far too much to hope for

***

Healthy?

This is the illusion of possible

Because no matter

How much you learn

How hard you try

How careful you are

How few risks you take

How much pleasure

You decide to deny yourself

To insure unknown additional

Moments of Time

The longer you survive

The less remains

Ahead

***

But how can anyone know

How far to go

Where to go

What chances to take

And who to take with you

To have a life worth living?

***

But love?

Take all you read above

Put it in a rocket

Aim it at a star

Fueled with

Six batteries and a slingshot

And that may be

A better bet than

Deciding who to love

And will it last forever

And

Did that other person

Really, totally

Love you back?

***

Looking back

You can’t start over

Correct the glitches

Say the brilliant thing

Kiss the one you want

Exactly when and how they

Wanted to be kissed by you

***

I think about all these things

Dreams too far away now

Not enough time left to

Plan beyond the next few

Full moons

Or so,

What I would have done

If only I knew

All the things I didn’t know

And never would

***

But then I think

There might be a chance

Not to fix the past

Not to undo

All I disappointed

But to focus on

Someone who knows

None of this

Who will only know me

As I am now

Who will give me a chance

To be better

To be kinder

To remember all

The little things

Even with no guarantee

Of how much time

We have left to be together

***

I am no more brilliant now

Than when

Whoever you are

Began to read

All these words

And you will have to answer

All these questions I’ve asked

By yourself

***

Me?

Tomorrow

I’m going to buy me a puppy

I will name her

Hope

Over the coming years

I will watch Hope grow

At least that

If nothing else

May be possible

I will make no plans beyond her

******************************

Publishing News! 

Bob Katzman”s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words

Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one mans lif’e than a person may imagine.

visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.

Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:

Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.

Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998  (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM

Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping

For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95

(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95

I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.

My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.

6 Comments »

Comment by B.

January 4, 2017 @ 11:08 pm

IT SEEMS YOU HAVE MOVED A LITTLE OFF OF STORY TELLING AND ARE SHARING BITS OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL MIND…JUST SANE

Comment by Garland Cole

January 5, 2017 @ 4:24 am

I’m so in love, I will never find a way out. Why would I want to? Why would you? In a polar snowscape there is no contrast, with no thing to compare, and it’s blinding. This writing is the same. I can not find the distinction that separates me from you, or you from me. You nailed me. You nailed yourself. You nailed it for the Divine to see! Some crosses bare halos before they are even finished, and only in that are they ever complete! This is one of them.

Comment by Garland Cole

January 9, 2017 @ 4:18 pm

I have visited the ‘Impossibility of Hope’ a number of times since it has been posted. How many, well I have lost count. Last night I read this out loud over the phone to someone very special to me. When I read it, I read it with the deliberation that I believe the author had intended. Slowly, with a cadence and in a rhythm that made sense to me. Was I adept in my presentation? Could my listener comprehend any, or all of it, without their eyes following the written words? Just what did it mean when we both broke down sobbing in the same places as I read? Just what did it mean that when the continuity of my deliverance and cadence was altered, that they had asked me to read it again, ‘From the top’, and I too agreed. And finally, just what did it mean that it took a sharing of four complete readings before we could do so without finding ourselves standing in a pool of tears? In my opinion, there is going to be a run on the puppy market, best get in line quick.

Comment by Brad Dechter

January 11, 2021 @ 10:09 am

I see when you wrote this. Has your view been tempered by the past 4 years?
Did your future turn out as “hope-full” as you wanted it?
What about fate? Has that too played a part in the last 4 years?
As we get older, I find we need to be more positive in all we do. Why dwell on negatives at this juncture? We all know our fate.

Comment by bruce

January 11, 2021 @ 10:17 am

Ok, friend, just don’t get all maudlin when hope shits on your rug…

There’s going to be a tale to tell
when Nancy asks you, “whats that smell…”

Comment by Jim Payne

January 11, 2021 @ 2:13 pm

Hope and love exist only in ourselves. It’s only we who know those inside us. Know thy self and appreciate thy self.

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