Mirror Poems

-- The World’s Lamp Blown Out --

John Herlihy

It’s not the loneliness that matters,

It’s the uncertainty that often bites.

Not sorrow that leaves me in tatters,

Rather the fear that on my heart alites.

Plague has crept furtively on all fours,

Like a wild animal in the darkest night.

A sad song of the hinges on attic doors,

Like moonlight offering darkness a light.

In an age where knowledge gives pride,

This unknowing feels infinitely worse.

We do look around with nowhere to hide,

One by one people now die as a curse.

The plague arrived with its hot wax stamp,

With the flame blown out in the world’s lamp.

-- The World’s Lamp Reignited --

John Herlihy

The world’s lamp will never grow cold,

Into complete darkness never fully fade.

The flame of humanity will never grow old,

As moonbeams thru the night’s pond wade.

The darkness may feel all-enveloping, deep,

Eyes closed, we enter the fabric of dark night.

To witness star light enough to make you weep,

Illuminating deep space with infinitesimal light.

We reach for infinite sparks in that distant light,

Faith, hope, and courage to stoke the embers.

Slowly, darkness no longer pretends to be night,

As we run under blue skies, the heart remembers.

As we burn away the plague’s hot wax stamp,

To reignite the living flame of the world’s lamp.

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(c) John Herlihy 1 April 2020