(April Wk 3 - 4)

Don't be frightened and sad because life is hard,
But don't let it defeat you, decide to fight;
Go through the world with open eyes, and listen.
Everything must interest you,
And you should reflect about everything,
Understand not to close one's ears for no reason.
Put down your roots where fate determined for you to live,
Don't be afraid of anything, and things will turn out well for you.
And don't forget about love in your life.
Choose your friends carefully, choose very carefully,
Only please don't confuse springtime infatuation with real love.
Live! Grasp life with both hands! 

Written for the PoetPubs' April 2020 challenge (Wk 3-4) we had to write a found poem, no longer than 20 lines, from any publicly available written history. I chose a letter written by Milada Horáková to her sixteen year old daughter. 

On June 8th of 1950, nine months after being arrested by the Czech secret police on suspicion of leading a plot to overthrow the Communist regime, 48-year-old socialist politician Milada Horáková was found guilty of "high treason" following a show trial that was broadcast on national radio, and in which she remained defiant. On the 27th of that month, despite international outcry and a petition signed by, amongst others, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, Milada Horáková was executed at Prague's Pankrác Prison.

The night before her death, she wrote the following letter to her 16-year-old daughter.

In 1991, President Václav Havel posthumously awarded Horáková the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

The letter is given in the external link.