-- Safe Refuge --

John Herlihy

Safe refuge can be hard to come by,

We feel safe only to learn otherwise.

Some on the whim of the heart rely,

But even a heart makes compromise.

The mind often provides safe refuge,

An ancient ship to brave a harsh gale.

When filled with worry as in a deluge,

A gentle wind will fill up its ample sail.

Some people pray during an ordeal,

The face of challenge forced to retire.

The mind can make an alternative real,

All those troubled thoughts to inspire.

The mind often invests its own tale,

Specked by sunbeams and moondust.

Bringing its own fantasies to regale,

Any fears that might betray its trust.

The mind with an inventive third eye,

Sees things never meant to be seen.

May into all corners of the heart pry,

In order to glean what things mean.

Our wishes can at times be misguided,

Taking us where we never need to go.

Whereas our mind may often be guided,

With ideas that our wisdom will know.

With thoughts that take their own turn,

They might even go against one’s wishes.

Fresh embers that do smolder and burn,

That seep into many cracks and fissures.

Mind a power its own world to create,

Thoughts a tool to shape things at will.

Never still with plenty of time to take,

A hundred joys deadened by a single ill.

Our thoughts take lodging in the mind,

Its various rooms need to be furnished.

Be true to ourselves, we must be kind,

Then we will know the mind is earnest.

We know the mind not always sincere.,

How then can we think it a safe haven?

Evil from deep caverns of mind may leer,

Turning the mind into a hopeless craven.

Beware the random fickleness of the mind,

Taking us to places we may not want to go.

Leading to an unsafe haven of another kind,

Not in our best interest to enter and know.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Saturday 30 October 2021