WAN HOOP
Hilde Van Dyck
This poem explores hope and despair not as opposites, but as inseparable companions.
In Dutch, the word wanhoop (despair) literally contains the word hoop (hope).
By visually separating the title into WAN HOOP, I highlight the space between them, a space that the poem understands as deeply human.
Rather than escaping despair, the poem invites us to sit beside it and recognise that hope often grows from the same wounds, cracks and experiences that create suffering.
It is an ode to duality, vulnerability and the human capacity to remain open amidst uncertainty.
