Seven Voices
By John Herlihy

Prelude

One voice echoes,
Two voices then chime.
Voices pour forth something to say,
They huff, they puff, they even bray.
Some voices sound just as sweet as a bird,
Voices ring aloud to be listened to and heard.

1
The voice of reason
Comes freely every season.
Its logic builds a strong ladder,
Its incentives make us much gladder.
We thought our way clearly to a conclusion,
What serves no purpose is subject to exclusion.

2
The voice of conscience
Plucked from a taut string.
We hear its echo sing sweetly,
It whispers in our ears most meekly,
Sound judgment and right action to bring;
The last drop of our human goodness to wring.

3
The voice of love
Coos like a turtle dove.
Gentle like and truly tender,
It makes no matter which gender.
The voice conveys emotions set on fire,
They raise us up and away far from the mire.

4
The voice of passion
Sounds as fickle as fashion.
We say what others want to hear,
It utters emotions that normally we fear.
When it dies down, we are left with very little,
Even our self-respect feels somewhat fragile and brittle.

5
The voice of greed
Stems from an evil seed.
A raw hunger that sounds brash,
Deep-seed and home-grown from trash.
The voice never finds any true satisfaction,
No matter what it devours, there is never any traction.

6
The voice of generosity
Delights with an air of plenty.
It echoes with a thousand voices,
To fill hearts with sound that rejoices.
Free giving multiplies any number of times,
Its good will comes back to us as echoing rhymes.

7
The voice of the sacred
Strips all pretentions naked.
It has no limits and is not bound,
Its sound lies within everything around.
Listen, the voice of God lies in every valley and hollow,
It soothes the human soul and unburdens our hearts of sorrow.

Refrain

Voices then,
Seven of them
Through life resound.
Some of them are heaven-bound,
Three take on an air most profound,
Three just run down to the soft ground.
The sacred voice claims the majority at seven.