By the Narrow Passage
By John Herlihy

By the narrow passage I enter the world to perceive,
All the truth, beauty and bliss the world can conceive.

In the isthmus of two seas will a mystery be revealed,
Since ancient antiquity on a rolled parchment sealed.

Through the eye of the needle the camel must tread,
More easily than a rich man to enter Heaven instead.

Even though I walk by day through the valley of death,
I will protect every right with the security of my breath.

On the lip of the horizon, heaven meets earth with a kiss;
Heaven’s Mercy offers the year its sense of universal bliss.

While our lives present good and evil on a razor’s edge,
May all my efforts secure balance with a sacred pledge.

When convention says that the night succeeds the day,
Who will ever contend that the day succeeds the night.

Out of darkness. I perceive a narrow passage of light,
I walk into its brilliance where I disappear from sight.

By the narrow passage through which we must pass,
I will leave behind all the treasure in my life I amass.

Forget not that the hour glass represents two infinities,
As time passes by the narrow passage of two eternities.