Heaven’s Reply
By John Herlihy

Trees stand in dark silhouette against a blanket of snow,
The colors of the spectrum reflect in the eyes of a doe,
Clouds like a protective shroud cover the land,
A veil drawn benevolently by the Divine Hand,
Until the hand of fate holds the curtain tight,
And gives the scene back to the ancient light.

We look around warily into the nearby shadows,
Grateful for the blessings that destiny daily bestows.
No one can deny that the roadway leads thru strife,
Adrift without a compass on the vast ocean of life.
Dandelions and daffodils awakening in the spring mist,
A family of chipmunks frolic about, just happy to exist.

The pennants are waving in the wind from every side,
Our ship is always at the mercy of the tumultuous tide,
That ebbs and flows with the attractions of the moon,
Magnetism that leaves lovers in a deadly swoon.
Afloat, abandoned, adrift on the indifferent waves tossed,
The stars in our heaven are inevitably sometimes crossed.

The earth and the sun navigate in unison along their way;
The stars dance down the promenade of the Milky Way.
The galaxies in the billions circle a central vortex and pray,
Obeying laws of universal harmony in the divine display.
The sun rises in the East bringing with it the light of day;
In twilight, it descends into the West with nothing further to say.

The secrets of the unknown will never be fully revealed;
The unseen within the physical world will remain forever sealed.
The knowledge we need to survive is available right here on earth,
By using the human faculties we were endowed with at birth.
The universe bows down before us without seeming to preach;
The mysteries of the human condition our souls to teach.

I search the blue, celestial dome to know the reasons why;
The sublime beauty of nature’s bounty is Heaven’s only reply.