The Darkest Shadow of Light
By John Herlihy

The fiercest light may produce the darkest shadow;
Light has more than mere benevolence to bestow.
We always sing of light’s praises for what it reveals;
We seldom venture into realms of what it conceals.

Lo, sacred scripture proclaimed let there be light,
To shatter with glass shards the serenity of night.
The dim white light of dawn repeats the first day,
When the first finger of light kept darkness at bay.

Over the centuries, the powers of light unfolded;
We understood light in new ways, emboldened.
Photons travel mysteriously at the speed of light,
Moving at ease thru the wonders of day and night.

The sun appears daily to shine over horizon’s lip,
Drenching half the earth in luminosity sip by sip.
The moon lends its mystique thru borrowed light,
As we fall in love deep in the middle of the night.

The light falls everywhere on mountains and sea,
On rivers and lakes, through the wings of the bee.
Every insect, every blade of grass, every leafy tree,
Bathes in the radiance of the sunlight for all to see.

What if we could see beyond the mystery of light,
Into another dimension even far beyond the night.
It is after all only a symbol with a limited capacity,
Darkness swallows light, so much for its virtuosity.

At one time, we thought the atom the materia prima
Only to learn of more miniscule depths in the schema
What then of our beloved light and its limited power
Sprinkling its phosphorescence like a rain shower

After a thousand years, the telescope opened the stars;
The prism analyzed the substance of the sun and Mars.
Microscopes unveil the inner sanctum of rocks with ease,
And probe health and sickness in the tissue of living bodies.

As the swallows sing and the fingers of light make their way;
Morning will continue to unfold to the blessed light of day.
I repeat it again: what then of light and its fading power,
Casting a multitude of shadows as invasion hour by hour.

Look to the blue of the sky and probe further what you see;
Light conceals as it reveals according to the powers that be.
Upon the faces of humanity, the mystery of light is explored,
Of a power far beyond the veil of light to be lifted and adored.

Light’s darkest shadow lies in the diaphanous veil of mystery,
A mystery lovingly preserved in the deep archives of history.
We strike the flint of our imagination to crack eternal codes,
Empty oceans and dredge the heavens to explore new roads.

The physical universe and its light may melt like winter snow;
The light of the soul will serve as repository of all that we know.