-- The Power of Knowing and Unknowing --

by John Herlihy

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Often I don’t know,

But would like to know.

When I would like to know,

Then I seek to know.

Sometimes by intuition I know,

Without having come to know.

Sometimes I begin to know,

After having learned to know.

Mysteries I don’t know,

I believe in order to know.

Denial a cloud of unknowing,

Belief a cloud of knowing.

We live amid the unknown,

But we dream of knowing.

The unknown stirs imagination,

Until we imagine knowing.

What is it that I believe,

What is it that I know.

What do I imagine to believe,

What do I hope to know.

Content to rest with the unknown,

Yet seeking, indeed longing, to know.

The unknown being what it is,

Knowing rarely being what it is.

Some things I will be gifted to know,

In the circle of revelations bestowing.

Some things I will never know,

In the circle of knowing and unknowing.

The virtue of knowing lies in unknown,

An emptiness waiting to be filled.

The virtue of unknowing lies in knowing,

The heart waiting to be stilled.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Tuesday 19 December 2023