Theater of Divine Wonder
By John Herlihy

I gaze upward at the heavens high,
The wild wind blows a steady sigh.
From north to south to east to west
Gather princes from nature’s finest.

Since the awakening of first light,
Since the death of an eternal night,
Nature’s curtain now cast asunder,
To reveal a theater of divine wonder.

The Divine Spirit inhaled and blew
The mystical wisdom of all He knew.
Forces gathered at the gate of clouds
Awakening insights under night shrouds.

Eternity quietly ushers in time’s moment,
Infinity discovers a place for atonement.
The created universe held itself in thrall,
At the majestic, glorious wonder of it all.

Angels of light displayed divine beatitude,
Uplifting our souls’ earth-bound attitude.
As if co-mingling with cherubs and saints,
as they color the world with divine paints.

First comes silence on bended knee,
The wind silenced by divine decree.
To fill our hearts with serene sound,
Not a faint whisper or breath around.

Earth not just the vision of what you see,
Earth turns according to the way we see it.
The sagacity that we witness in busy bees
Is mirrored in the uplifted limbs of trees.

The wisdom we observe in the seasons
Mirrors ants and their persuasive reasons.
The forethought of squirrels to comply
With the rigors that frigid winters imply.

The striking agility of the praying mantis
Bestows a blessing this sight may grant us.
The forlorn ladybug far away from her home
Visits flower and leaf under heaven’s dome.

The earth spread out as an oriental carpet;
Nature’s forces bargain as in an Arab market.
Winter dresses the land in delicate, snowy lace,
As the Lord God gazes down with His kind Face.

God’s theater of wonder need not be believed;
All of nature stirs an intimacy forever retrieved.
Small wonder that humans have always prayed,
To preserve such intimacy, never to be betrayed.