Imagining Worlds

By John Herlihy

As night fires burn, we listen to imaginary stories,

That speak of the Divine Majesty and all His glories.

The celestial dome overhead painted a canvas blue;

The earth spread out as a carpet the Divine threw.

Who created the fearsome jaws of tiger and lion?

Who imagined the sublime constellation of Orion?

He roars out thunder and flashes forth lightning;

He blows the wind thru cornfields the birds inciting.

Who cut the moon from silver; the sun from gold?

Whose tears are rain and whose mist made bold?

See the sculpted desert dunes in sunset’s fiery red;

See fields of sunflowers awaken and lift their head.

Imagine mountains chained as animals sleeping;

The flooded rivers drawn from mountains weeping.

Rejoice in the wild stampede of startled buffalo,

The sound of a thousand animal hooves in tow.

Who molded the cavernous depths of the lakes,

And all the eerie creatures that swim like snakes.

Do all the potentates of the world issue divine decrees,

While they are decked out in purple robes and rubies?

Do they count waves of the sea or sands on the shore?

Does the hawk or eagle fly at their command and more?

Do they marshal the surging waves in the vast ocean,

Or set free the dandelion seeds with a magic potion?

The Almighty scorns the multitudes roaming in cities;

The mountains, valleys, savannahs serve as His pasture.

He made the hooves of the ass and the teeth of wolves,

The iron talons of eagles with amber studs for their eyes.

The shoulders of the bison and the shell of the snail,

The arms of the starfish and the tails of the sea horse.

Humanity behaves like blind men reading from braille;

They puff up their chests and blow the wind into their sail.

We know these things in our heart; why do we tire to listen;

The golden vein of truth runs through the world to glisten.

Why do we fret at taunting words and earthly contradictions?

We need but observe the world closely to make predictions.

What we do not understand we can only end up dreading,

The mysteries that lie all around us we end up worshiping.

Whatever lies in the heavens and on earth belongs to Him,

Offered to us as a benevolent mercy and not at our whim.

What folly to claim our equality with the Divine Plenitude;

Let us bow down our heads in faith to the Divine Certitude.