-- Those Tidelines --

John Herlihy

Those tidelines

Clearly marked there,

On the seawall of my mind.

I never noticed them before.

The highs and the lows,

Key point stages of my life.

Never thought possible such range,

All now marked as in indelible ink.

Indelible ink, not really,

A clear line of mud and sludge,

Left behind with shreds of seaweed,

Still shiny, in the light of the sun, translucent.

The sea must have come up in the night,

A fresh tideline superseded them all.

Millions of droplets converge to conquer a world,

A tideline to mark the epitome of something.

The tides not limited to the oceans,

Earth tide brings an account to bear.

The earth’s crust shifts to solar/lunar forces,

Even the earth endures the ebb and flow of life.

All caused by the tidal phases of the moon,

Shining fresh enchantment down upon us.

The waxing stages fill us with hope,

The waning stages us with uncertainty.

Earth’s atmosphere itself exhibits tidelines,

The ebb and flow of the atmosphere’s moody embrace.

We feel it as weather that cast us to the wind,

Leaving behind a sense of an inexplicable mystery.

The tidal phases of the moon marked upon us,

Threads of light and shadow on the wall of the heart.

In waxing, we feel the luminescence of our lives,

In waning, we feel evanescence of our lives.

Deep outer space also witnesses galactic tides,

Surging waves of stars forever ebb and flow.

Leaving behind tidelines of light shimmering,

To greater or lesser effect on the galactic fields.

All witnessed in the tidelines of the soul,

The soul of our lives marked by essence and depth.

Life’s waves surge through us leaving their mark,

To become a tideline on the wall of Universal Spirit.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Monday 10 January 2022