Hope

Gun Truck

Offhand
Nightshift
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Sunset #1
Battle Buddies
Sentry


Hope

The images of war are a dark place for me. They are full of fear, the unknown, a rocket attack, or perhaps mortar fire. Yet; always in the background is hope. A hope as beautiful as the Iraqi sunset, a vibrant colorful future painted across the horizon as far as I can imagine. A future filled with hope. I hope for a safe return. I hope for peace. I hope for a future filled with family. I hope to watch Joshua and Vanessa grow. I hope to play baseball with my boy and to hug my girl. I hope for more time. My hope swells with love to Nancy, my wife. That hope contrasted against the despair of war is as beautiful as the Iraqi sunset punctuating the darkness of day and night.
I hope for home. Home: a long way off, settling on a distant horizon. Home: providing the light of hope in all her colorful splendor across the desert of eight months.

Spencer Ennis
October 5, 2005
Ar Ramadi, Iraq




Hope is a curious thing. My fear has been displaced by hope. Fear remains an enemy lurking in the unknown but the light of hope has turned to faith and my faith sustains me.



November 15, 2005




I wrote this to accompany a series of color pencil drawings I created or maybe I created the drawings to accompany my writing. It's hard to say which came first since they were both created about the same time and place. The creation of both were generated from feelings of loneliness, fear, and hope. These drawing are posted above. They were inspired by photographs I took while serving with the Utah National Guard in western Iraq. The photographs of sunsets in Iraq did not capture the color in the sky. The color in my drawings are more what I saw. I was especially facinated by the dramatic effect of dark silhouettes against colorful sunsets.