HARP SONGS

By John Herlihy

The ancient harp songs come back to life,

Primitive tunes strum of happiness and strife.

Feats of arms and wild adventures of daring do,

Courage to be brave as all fears to the wind blew.

One song sings of fruits that begin as fragrant buds,

The fruit trees take the blessing of springtime floods.

Harp songs sing of the buds that become blooms,

Petals float down, swept away by the wind’s brooms.

Leaving behind the sweet nectar of the fruit now ripe,

Remember that all things ripen into a sweetness rife.

Pluck the luscious fruit to eat as nature has bestowed,

Otherwise, the fruit will be trampled in the dusty road.

Harp songs keep watch over what our desire means,

Reluctantly drawn from the locked cellars of our dreams.

When their truth breaks through the beauty of their notes,

All guilt lost as penitence floats away in wind-blown boats.

Even sanctity has firm shackles that can make us shout,

Ah, but our sanctity can break through clouds of doubt.

Harp songs sing of time for war and time for peace,

The ancient rhythms of the universe will never cease.

There is a haunting of the soul that always lies within,

The full range of the emotions will fill us to the brim.

Ancient harp songs pluck moods upon heart strings,

The heart bleeds out its emotions as the harp sings.

I gaze upon the ancient harp beckoning me in request,

With all a mother’s tenderness with her baby at breast.

The strings strung taut with its silence on the verge,

Ready to be plucked by the musician upon an urge.

Wrapped within notes that lingered from the past,

Cowardice and courage of centuries in notes held fast.

The notes play on to remind humanity who they are,

Echoing across the millennia unto the North Star.

Nothing in the world is as majestic as a great sorrow;

Nothing in time as purposeful as the coming of tomorrow;

There is a simplicity to the harp songs that is intoxicating,

Plucked by cords of beauty to ripple as waves enervating.