-- What Is the World –

John Herlihy

What is the world,

But a weeping willow.

As I lay my head down,

On a tear-filled pillow.

And what is the world,

But all the innocent joy.

The sweet cocoon of childhood,

The happy memory of a toy.

And what is the world,

But a barren exiled place.

Full of sorrows, injustices,

The exposed side of its face.

And what is the world,

But a beautiful place.

When nature calls, we listen,

The color, the light, all glisten.

And what is the world,

But a way of treachery.

Devil’s temptations galore,

Along the way of lechery.

And what is the world,

Full of baubles and bangles.

Time passing, a plaything,

Sparkling beads and spangles.

And what the world,

But a parenthesis in two eternities.

A brief sojourn in time and space,

Our home between two infinities.

And what is the world,

But a planet through shadows riding.

A flashy marble rolling nowhere,

But shadows with none abiding.

And what is the world,

But an oceanic sea of blue.

In the darkness of the heavens,

Where burning stars flew.

And what is the world,

But a drop from the Divine Pen.

Indelible ink that never fades,

Light glowing in multiple shades.

And what is the world,

But a journey and a cosmic test.

The orbiting earth is our inn,

And we travelers are its guest.

And what is the world,

But a transience amid permanence.

A finite body moving toward infinity,

A timely body moving toward eternity.

And what is the world,

But a waystation in Heaven’s dark hall.

Rotating in orbit on its own axis,

High up in the crowd of worlds in thrall.

Farewell cruel, heartless, beautiful world,

A world left behind when I take my leave.

I will listen to wind blowing thru the pines,

As the evening star upon the earth shines.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Monday 30 August 2021