-- Impermanence --

John Herlihy

We live in a world of impermanence,

Nothing ever stays the same.

We seek out a world of permanence,

To legitimize the soul’s name.

The dandelion speaks of impermanence,

Its wispy puffs in wind blow.

Autumn leaves never taste of permanence,

With a permanent message to bestow.

Spring must make way for summer,

Summer is merely a fleeting runner.

Autumn leaves fall down in surrender,

In winter, we always spring remember.

Flowers bloom, but petals fall to the ground,

Silence appears in the absence of sound.

Dawn makes way for day to shine brightly,

Twilight makes way for darkness nightly.

Wind has the freedom to blow at its ease,

Either howling in tempest or gentle as breeze.

Each little snowflake unique unto its own,

Birds every winter chose south to have flown.

Snow brings with it beauty in whiteness svelte,

Its impermanence highlighted as its flakes melt.

Even the love of a loved one is a fragile thing

Who knows what winter in a relation may bring?

Yet do not be saddened by inevitable change,

In beauty lies truth our perceptions to arrange.

Impermanence echoes the law of cosmic harmony,

Thereby opening the gates of universal mystery.

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(c) John Herlihy 2 October 2019