-- The Poor Poet –

John Herlihy

The poor poet talks to no one,

In writing, his heart never silent.

Verses of shadow and light spun,

On soul thoughts totally reliant.

The poor poet talks to everyone,

Yet writing, thought as rain pours.

Verses of magical mystery be spun,

Words as waves seeking far shores.

The poor poet is not actually poor,

On his own and alone he may be.

His treasure chest offers rich store,

With vision the invisible he may see.

The poor poet considers himself rich,

Blessing to express poems of beauty.

Each poem patiently born stich by stich,

Everywhere he turns, he sees mystery.

His desire for the world has ceased,

Nothing with this task can compare.

As blessing, his inspiration increased,

In every stroke a calligraphy of prayer.

These poems as seeds securely planted,

As spring flowers in his garden of delight.

Each whisper, taking nothing for granted,

Even in nighttime, always seeking the light.

Methodically, he writes the words down,

Emotions as rogue imps filling the page.

Some readers may smile, others may frown,

Only himself, the poet not trying to be sage.

Such love poems as though read from a book,

As water bubbling along the course of a brook.

Poems that only to themselves rightly belong,

For such love sentiments a good heart longed.

At times silence precedes what he wrote,

An emptiness that gathers itself as a storm.

The verse then echoes in his mind as quote,

Before he knows it, a sonnet is newly born.

The rose knows nothing of its own beauty,

Its sublime perfume serves as its only smell.

The rose gives itself away freely as its duty,

Not thinking, never breaking its own spell.

Therein lies the eternal mystery of the rose,

Its form makes known its unique presence.

Inner beauty remains unknown to the rose,

It merely blooms as it truly is, in its essence.

Therein lies the eternal mystery of the poet,

His outer form humble and poor as presence.

He is fulfilling a rare duty, but doesn’t know it,

He writes what comes to mind in his essence.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Saturday 4 September 2021