--- The Joys and Sorrows of Marriage ---

By John Herlihy

People sometimes wonder about the joys of marriage,

Comparable in some ways to a ride in an open carriage.

Enflamed emotions exact qualities of pleasure and pain;

Premarital bliss and post-marital blues are not the same.

Wisps of love-emotion lend growing soul to the courtship,

Until traces of doubt gall like balsamic vinegar on the lip.

Whereas once ethereal revelations did wander in stride;

Time enough broken revelations do get under one’s hide.

Those of ardent nature who turn experience into principle,

Soon come to learn the loved-one’s nature has a wrinkle.

The passion of love stirs the heart into realms of fantasy;

The passion of changing moods stirs a tumultuous reality.

Broad vistas, titanic life once painted on future’s ceiling;

Corridors of mental subterranean caves send one reeling.

A vast wreckage of ambitious ideas laid on shore to rest;

Now a tide brings forth trepidation to put one to the test.

Flighty moods of anticipation shine delicate and glowing;

Later somber moods of regret derived from true knowing.

Sweet anticipation aroused images of nocturnal lanterns,

Illuminating the shadows as we doze in a web of caverns.

Only the faint of heart may cringe at the new-found reality,

That now washes away in a compelling tide the imaginary.

Tantamount to trying to create history of light and shadow;

The light changes, you cannot find dawn in a noon meadow.

Only those who enter know the joys and sorrows of marriage,

A sun-lit future on a shadowy road, there in a closed carriage.

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(c) John Herlihy 10 November 2018