Something More

By John Herlihy

We reach an open hand to others,

We endeavor always to do our best.

We try to treat people as our brothers,

We respond to life’s mysterious quest.

Our life is not just a spent offering,

To float as scripted smoke on high.

The sun shines bright and softening,

Not a candle to be snuffed in the sky.

The great books of literature I have read;

In my travels, I stepped with nimble tread.

I have responded to Nature’s beckoning call;

Rivers and lakes have a message after all.

At times I feel like an old pot on the ground,

Broken into a thousand pieces all around.

As the night fire turns wooden logs to ash;

Light disappears in the dark, gone in a flash.

My laughter echoes like tinkling night bells;

My happiness a white light the night foretells.

My tears have cried themselves out and dried;

My sorrow filled with tears of life’s river supplied.

Truth breaks thru clouds in light of repentance;

A clean wind blows away all ashen penitence.

A slow wind blows within me from Heaven torn,

To clear the rust of my soul from dreams born.

The one question that arises and truly inspires.

Have I courage to be myself, fulfill my desires?

It will never matter what I believed in before;

I now seek and strive to become something more.