-- Lament of a Sad Man --

John Herlihy

To find value and worth in each of life’s lessons,

To feel mercy and relief in each of life’s confessions.

To always make good on all of God’s many gifts,

To smell all spring’s perfumes in a thousand whiffs.

To hear the fading echo in the lament of a sad man,

To stare at the line of the horizon encircling the land.

To lift one’s head up high under life’s heavy yoke,

To try and bottle, like a child, all the pungent smoke.

Whole days may pass when the heart feels closed,

Alien feelings firmly locked that could never be opposed.

A smallness burrows deep that we can’t find inside,

It’s the bigness in ourselves upon which we always relied.

A constant struggle to stay afloat on the ocean’s surface,

A desire to plunge into ocean depths to find life’s purpose.

In childhood, we believed all the untrue stories we were told,

As we age, it is hard to believe all the stories that did unfold.

Yet, in the lament of a sad man always lies a glimmer of hope,

The last hope here on this earth that is impossible to revoke.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Thursday 6 January 2022