A Secret Place

By John Herlihy

When the need arises,

I sleepwalk to my secret place.

When my world offers unexpected surprises,

No variation or hesitancy in my increasing pace.

When feeling down and out, I often retire,

To my secret place where my deepest thoughts inspire.

My guess is that most people have one,

Although I have never heard anyone openly tell.

No one can escape treachery and tragedy in our world spun,

Unless you have a secret place with a magic spell.

A place where I can wander into the corners of my mind,

To retrieve deep reflections of another kind.

Whether it be a cove by the ocean or a secret cave,

A hidden place to go to that nobody knows.

I can explore my own thought in this sacred nave,

To seek out the peace and contentment of winter snows.

I am not alone in this regard, everyone has this inner need,

A place of search and exploration until our troubles recede.

I spent the night there before my first day at school,

Tucked into the ends of the earth at Ultima Thule.

The night before my marriage, I felt the rush of ocean’s tide,

Only to feel the waters recede in the one place I could hide.

On one far distant day just before my first son was born;

My secret place gave me the strength to mend a heart torn.

Life is full of little routines that don’t accommodate big changes,

All the accidents, births, marriages and deaths that destiny arranges.

There, out of the wind, the intake of my breath rises and falls as a tide;

Alone, the world at bay, I see flickers of light in the darkness ride.

Whenever I feel the need to sort myself out, I retire to my secret place.

There, in the wisdom of its solitude, I better understand what I need to face.

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(c) John Herlihy December 2018