The Revelation of Light
By John Herlihy


In some ways, we now take light for granted;
The day shines bright, but at night light becomes enchanted.
Moonbeams shine down upon the earth like rivers of milk;
They invade the nighttime forest like bolts of molten silk.
The autumn colors of the dying sunset send chills up my spine;
The exhausted light resembles an unraveling string of twine.
A witch’s finger beckons the onslaught of the coming night;
The colors reflect dying light on the lake as elegant swans take flight.

Let us not forget the stars, twinkling in the heavens humble and quiet;
If they could express in words their beauty, they would cause a riot.
From the distance, the stars have more than a simple mystery to tell;
They have more than the uncanny ability to wrap humanity in their spell.
They serve as a celestial clock as the constellations slide across the sky;
The Milky Way forms pathways thru the gardens of a heavenly Versailles.

The sunset, moon and stars all speak silently of the revelation of light;
Even if we close our eyes, they always shine brightly, even out of sight.
That is what light does, it just shines out of itself, beaming on and on;
The light here on earth is just a splinter of eternal light forever reborn.
The colors of the prism are simple fragments of reds, purples, and browns;
The pure light of the blue sky dignifies our hallowed earthly grounds.