-- The Claim of the Day --
John Herlihy
In dawning once again,
The day makes its return.
Born of the eternal when,
In night’s darkness to yearn.
In return, day makes it claim,
An endless cycle forever born.
For one brief moment, to remain,
Day’s essence from eternity torn.
Awakening into day’s first dawn,
Casting light as silence thundered.
An infant first breath, newly born,
Light into the heart of day wandered.
First day descends into first dusk,
Falling over the edge into fathoms deep.
The final shards of light as bread crust,
The departing day the first to weep.
The first day evokes the final day,
Eternal night awaits the day to smother.
One final twilight simply slips away,
The infant an old man as none other.
Yet how glorious as the day proceeds,
Sacred time as temporal in each hour.
The day creating a garden amid weeds,
Each single moment as a source of power.
No one knows of the final hour,
We only know the finality near.
Budding bloom turns fading flower,
The nature of things holds no fear.
Every last day becomes the first,
Forever fresh and forever new.
Promising to quench all thirst,
The day only wants to be with you.
The day remembered, filling the mind,
Sweet memories of the day remain.
How faithful the day was, and kind,
‘I will return’ its single, solitary claim.
- - - - - -
Copyright ©John Herlihy
Saturday 7 August 2021
Rebecca