-- The Empty Mirror --

John Herlihy

The empty mirror seems but nothing,

The filled mirror contains everything.

I hold a mirror up to the infinite high,

What it reflects is the bottomless sky.

I carry a mirror innately inside of me,

Always empty, waiting myself to see.

In its depths, visions of my entire life,

Emptiness allows an abundance rife.

In living life, our mirror reflects this,

Once empty, then full of all the bliss.

My lifetime seems to vanish within me,

Goodbye moments in farewell I do see.

The mirror has no surfaces, only depth.

Images fall into the abyss, nothing left.

The vanishing happens with no concern,

Living gives us only the moment to learn.

Surprised when stars are born and die?

Transformations occur, no questions why.

Spiraling old galaxies simply swept away,

When they have nothing further to say.

Ancient cities gone from the earth’s face,

Civilizations disappeared without a trace.

Between empty and full, the flux will last,

And not the engaging histories of the past.

A mirror’s deep eye is always on watch,

Any random beauty into itself to catch.

A butterfly lifted aloft by a slight breeze,

Snow brushes mountain peaks with ease.

When things vanish, only shadow remains,

By breath deeply inhaled, our life sustains.

An empty mirror catches things on the sly,

Drawn deeply within to fill the mirror-eye.

Reflecting mirror’s gate always left ajar,

Emptiness awaiting the fullness of a star.

The mirror always beckoning us to come,

Enter its tempting emptiness of welcome.

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(c) John Herlihy 3 June 2020