Emily Hagopian: Never Forget

Emily Hagopian is the 2014 "ARTHUR HALVAJIAN MEMORIAL" ARMENIAN POETRY COMPETITION WINNER in the 18-22 age category. Congratulations, Emily!

To be but what is not already there, an idealist self, and a realist idea

may lead one to the endless ponder of an everlasting legacy
-pondering and thinking, the stuff of life’s work
made up of tragedy, and tragic experiences
-this Americanized, romanticized idealism
forced to uphold empty promises
as we are born again to see an unending quest where
-there is no firm goal and no reward
-there is no promise of peace or tranquility
-there is no pursuit of happiness, no luck, no leaping, no lingering in dead-end back alley ways.
It is simply a celebration of faith
-all talk of simplicity set aside-
there may not even be faith, it may not even exist, who’s to know?
but it is the celebration that is so precarious
We walk into empty black rooms every day and every night where

Faith is our redeemer; our Savior is close.

We are born only when death becomes us
-the ring bearer to tie us to our great universal truth
-always living the catastrophic as we are persuaded to adjust to injustice
we accept the force and persuasion
as we turn to an envious rebirth and begin understanding what has already been here

“Հայ ենք մենք!”

We've come away from 1915 with our

promulgations flowing from our lips: Never Forget

-our outcries reaching borders unknown, and yet,

this is the never-ending duty of our kin, to never forget,

to never be satisfied with the work we've accomplished, and to

always take pride in our continuous strive toward freedom.