Finally Answered
By John Herlihy

We struggle all our life
With questions that need to be answered.
We are confronted with a multitude of strife
That only serves as further challenges to be mastered.
We think we know what we have to accomplish,
Only to realize that suffering has become our accomplice.

As a young man my life spread before me,
As I went about living to search for my identity.
In middle age, I came to maturity expecting fulfillment,
Only to realize that I still suffered a form of bewilderment.
In old age at long last I was blessed with a singular insight,
That turned all the colors of the spectrum into blinding light.

The sight cause a wave of unexpected enlightenment,
Confusion and anger now swept away in abandonment.
With this passing followed a feeling of great fortitude,
At first it felt remote and distant like an unfamiliar solitude.
Then came nearer as a vision, filled with a sense of pure love,
An emotion and strength I didn’t know I was capable of.

Questions that had been asked over the course of a lifetime,
Now gathered together into a final asking bordering on sublime.
One last secret with the capacity to turn into wonder
Revealing a knowledge who we really are and where we are headed.
Whose mystery in the tapestry of my life has been threaded,
One last question that once asked was graciously answered.