-- A Good Life --

John Herlihy

Many things can go into making a good life,

The number uncountable in a single setting.

Here let me identify three things in my life,

That ring totally true on which I am betting.

Here the three things upon which I do rely,

Without them, I could not anything manage.

With them, I see a way forward and will try,

To make the most of gifts given to advantage.

I always leave the door open to allow mystery,

To make itself known in all its ways mysterious.

Evidence is made known thru recorded history,

Unanswered questions are what make life serious.

I always leave the door open to listen to instinct,

Knowledge that we know without knowing how.

Questions arise when we are taken to the brink,

Decisions made based on its knowledge somehow.

I always leave the door open to imagine, to dream,

Fantasies drawn of a deep inner well to come true .

In dark shadows of our world a solitary light beam,

Gleaming as a candle whose flame gentle wind blew.

Three pre-historic creatures to roam day and night,

Born of an arcane era. the unknown still held dear.

With powers drawn from celestial streams of light,

That settle down in our minds as premonitions near.

Mystery, sweet mystery, in the bellows of the chest,

As a bud unfolding never to fully bloom as a flower.

We breathe its perfume in to stir our ancient quest,

We question, we probe, as bees draining its power.

Instinct, fathomless instinct, in caverns of the mind,

Native knowledge in primeval streams forever flow.

There in the inner eye, such visions otherwise blind,

A descent from upper echelons to realms far below.

Dreams, ravishing dreams, as blossoms of the soul,

Phantoms of hope that lure with pledges to be real.

A shattered cup of miseries once again made whole,

Before their alluring promises, we do humbly kneel.

Life mystery, raw instinct, sweet dreams lend power,

The wind remains invisible, a tree bends to its force.

The bee seeks nectar in the knowledge of a flower,

The river makes detours, but always runs its course.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Monday 8 November 2021