-- The Unknown World --

By John Herlihy

A sense of complacency encompasses all that I see;

A sense of comfort marches forth in all its familiarity.

Into the compass of the horizon, known worlds blend,

A gift to humanity with a sign only heaven may send.

Within the filter of the mind, its visions set forth free;

All that the world ever was, and all that it ever will be.

Therein lies a sense of not enough, a sense of mystery;

When the bud will unfold, what kind of flower will it be.

We live mystery every day of our lives, a kind of pulse,

Its question sounding out its inquiry as a second heart.

Led by a firm hand into rare depths no one truly knows,

Led on to all those unique places we could only suppose.

We wait for the mystery to land and settle in the mind,

Visions of the other, an unknown world, of another kind.

Mystery burrows deep, into the body’s blood and water,

To reside watching and waiting, like a patient squatter.

In rarefied moments, the mystery yields sudden insight,

An awakening to stir our depths, feeling every bit right.

In the mystery lies a presence that no one can withstand;

It reaches down into the cave of the heart as a reprimand.

A presence that is invisible, unknown, and yet it stirs awe,

As majestic and miraculous as anything in life we ever saw.

“Do you ever listen,” it intones, “and in listening ever hear?

I stand before you as a phantom, like a guardian angel near.”

When you reach the mountain peak, close your eyes to see;

When you hear a magic flute, close your ears for the melody.

When you taste a ripened fruit, its inner light will glow within,

Deep in an unknown world that lies quietly beneath the skin.

When you smell the lilac, remember the perfume of paradise,

That descends to earth to enrich the world of its scent of spice.

The hand of mystery rose and extended forth, its palm open,

Gesturing across heaven and earth with movement unbroken.

Upon its palm a simple message now plain for the world to see,

A message written into each individual palm for all of humanity.

The unknown world but a mirror reflection in shadows of our sight;

Lift the veil of mystery that lies before you to behold the true light.

- - - - - -

(c) John Herlihy 9 October 2018