-- The Seer, the Sage --

John Herlihy

The age-old seer, the noble sage

Sees deep within the inside of things

The blessed sage, ancient and ageless

The hours and days marked upon his visage

Sun-hardened parchment found no purchase

His voice cracked like bones, the face living stone

His smile in repose, drawn from wisdom’s well

The light emitted comes from gazing at the moon

When he spoke, the years of his life vanished

Set free from the gaunt hollows of his cheeks

Mysteries as light in the sunken pits of his eyes

Unburdened by false hopes and misleading memories

The thread of his future yet unspun, bright and clear

Threads of his past spun in weaves of shadow and light

Clear-eyed and untroubled in the wreckage of a life

No need to remember, except the one thing needful

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Monday 6 December 2021