-- Earth, Sea, Sky --

John Herlihy

We don’t see the earth as we see the sea;

The earth’s fullness belies the sea’s emptiness.

We don’t value the earth as we value the sea;

The earth seems limited, while the sea limitless.

When I look out my window, I don’t see the earth;

I see houses and buildings, roadways and trees.

The earth developed and cultivated since our birth;

The sky above a cathedral dome, earth to appease.

Where the earth and sky meet, no one truly knows;

The thin line of the horizon suggests limitless expanse.

Earth laid before us like an inviting blanket in repose;

The sky, the grand expanse of sky, holds us in a trance.

The earth but a finite world in orbit around the sun;

Sit on the world’s horizon and you are sitting on the edge.

The sky, the heavens, infinite outer space newly begun;

In representing nothingness, everything is its pledge.

Beloved earth, our home, the beauty of its nature essential;

The heavens, our final frontier, undisturbed, full of potential.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Sunday 18 July 2021