-- Finding the Beginning --

John Herlihy

In any attempt to find the beginning,

We need to explore deeper into the sublime.

We know the end, so there must be a beginning,

There, a single moment, at the edge of time.

Children often ask from where and how they are born,

Understandably, they wonder where they come from.

Are we really down from heaven by angels borne,

Or colored threads from some magical mystery spun.

As adults, we marvel at the thought of the Big Bang,

Some kind of atomic explosion to rock the universe.

So much time at the beginning, when the universe sang,

So little time at the end, with all seemingly in reverse.

Our rich earth gives birth to the struggling seedling,

That rises up with the sunlight and the air to grow.

Vegetation of the earth does our sustenance bring,

A cycle of beginning and end that we already know.

Not a single one of us looks to the heavens in wonder,

Without asking how those twinkling stars are born.

A summer storm with its display of lightning and thunder,

Makes us realize we are all from sublime mystery torn.

And what of sickness and hardship, loss and sorrow,

We know that they too have a beginning and an end.

What began yesterday as hardship will find end tomorrow,

That too a promise of the life cycle that will never pretend.

We look to the body, but know there is more that lives;

A consciousness as witness betrays a silent spirit within

The mind, the heart, the soul, each one of them gives,

And owes their existence, beginning and end, to Him.

We need to brace ourselves and live by nature’s clock;

We see beginning and end in the dawn and the dusk.

To escape from time’s vengeance, we must take stock;

We must break open the shell to arrive at the husk.

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(c) John Herlihy 22 March 2020