My 500th poem posted here on Authors Den, a kind of milestone.

The Philosopher’s Stone
By John Herlihy

At the heart of existence lies the Philosopher’s Stone,
Golden elixir of angels solidified as life’s cornerstone.
Drawn deep by the Divinity from the well of first things,
To provide the initial and enduring spark all life brings.
Plato writes the four elements stem from materia prima,
The first matter of the Stone, the first matter of all things.

The materia prima glows in the darkness of all physical matter,
Intermingling the world of the spirit into the spirit of the world.
Consider the stone’s spiritual mystique as mythical as a satyr,
While countless people pursued this mystery as the Mad Hatter.
On the back of a wind horse on Buddhist prayer flags unfurled,
One had only to come to understand the perfection of the pearl.

Today we have come to associate the Stone with the avaricious,
All evil souls who find themselves to be unnaturally ambitious.
People who harbor the secret desire to change lead into gold,
Those who seek longevity and cure by having their soul sold.
And not to forget those who defy nature in seeking immortality,
Willing to die in its pursuit, only to confirm their utter mortality.

There is still a means to lift the veil of the Philosopher’s Stone,
A secret held by mystics who live their life their sins to atone.
When they asked themselves how to secure certain temperance,
They found within the Philosopher’s Stone a hidden remembrance.
A memory so deep it takes us back to the dawn of primordial time,
When lead becomes gold and death life as from the celestial mine.

What has confounded people the world over all down thru history
Can be reduced to a simple act of remembrance with little mystery.
Imagine the ability to fuse our discovery with the pulse of eternal time,
To lift our hearts in remembrance of the Divine Promise that is mine,
To the threshold of first light in the realm of first origins and source,
To the land of beauty and truth that contains no earthly remorse.

How can I enter eternity without losing the sense of earthly time?
How can I enter infinity without losing all that is uniquely mine?
Take a deep breath, close the eyes, focus the mind, enter the core,
Deep within the mind and heart far beyond one’s conscious door.
To find the remembrance of the one thing that needs remembering,
To utter the name of the Loved One, the Friend, who bears recalling.

Is there anyone left to imagine how to cure the scourge that life brings,
The demons, devils, and ghosts who mumble a dirge only they can sing?
Is there one left with the courage to lift the veil protecting the mysterious,
The darkness, the unknown, the mist of the unseen all make us delirious?
Something that turns darkness into light, the invisible into the visible,
Something to fill our cup with delight, something unique and indivisible.

Here is my cup, filled with our beloved earth, moon, sun, stars, galaxies;
But still the cup is not full, and I am left with the empty space of fallacies.
The wilderness needs a thunderous voice to shake the stars in their places,
A volcanic shudder to fill the cave of the human heart with divine graces.
The rest of the world becomes nowhere, gone, completely disappeared,
Without leaving anything behind, but a shadow and a whisper afeared.

Only the remembrance fills the mind and heart with true illumination;
Spirals of light invade the inclusive darkness that fills the visualization.
A darkness that has existed thru time and space since time immemorial;
A darkness so solid and impenetrable, it was for ages our only memorial.
Uttering the name of the One opens the inner eye to vanquish the Night,
Invoking the remembrance of the One releases the visible, eternal Light.