-- Shadow Traits --

John Herlihy

We are a tapestry of life, in threads of light and dark,

A work in progress always striving to be a work of art.

Somehow, we know our strengths, of weaknesses little,

Disharmonies that lie within playing as notes of a fiddle.

Where do they come from, complexes to feel as plague?

My life but crests and troughs in rhythms of some wave.

How much those shadow traits do follow me and haunt,

How much those shadow traits do laugh at me and taunt.

Strange, no matter how much light, still we see shadows,

There in the corners of the heart as knots in ribbon bows.

Slowly I live, I learn, as I begin to see what they really are,

Nothing more than elusive ghosts that need be driven far.

Now I see light and darkness as blessing of the divine sun,

Our journey has imperfections, but each step of light spun.

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(c) John Herlihy 28 April 2020