When Things Were Simple

by John Herlihy

Some things remind me when things were simple,

When found in the very center of a smile a dimple.

Some things remind me when everything was fair,

When all was said and done, we resorted to prayer.

When sweet simplicity held all minutes of the hour,

The virtues of honor, fidelity and nobility held power.

When truth was the truth and a lie considered a lie,

Now people proclaim falsehoods every truth to defy.

Some things remind me of the existence of mystery,

The unseen that lies within the outer face of beauty.

A mystery that motivates us the solution to explore,

All beauty that fills us with a secret desire to adore.

Beckoning of cow bells and church bells in the day,

Honest labor, swift payment, satisfaction held sway.

Trial and error, mercy, forgiveness, once took hold,

The beauties of the dawn and the sunset to behold.

Young children play happily in the heart of simplicity,

They live through the life-long day in all its intimacy.

In fact, they go about play as if the day will never end,

If they be left alone or feel lonely, they invest a friend.

Hearing things as if no one ever heard them before,

Seeing things as if no one has ever seen them before.

All year, my mother watered plants on the windowsill,

Especially in springtime, she took care of the daffodil.

What is the final human quality to elevate all desire,

The one untouchable essence that fuels eternal fire.

Think of a human feeling that no one can understand,

.Lodged within the human heart without any demand.

Yes, the one human quality to transcend all I know,

Uniting hot, cold, black or white, a dove or a crow.

Love, the one human quality we cannot live without,

Offering a heightened certainty that bears no doubt.

In my old age, I awaken content to see another day,

Simplicity of the minutes and hours will show the way.

Life’s complications had its moment and now lays done,

Life’s exquisite web, so fragile, so simple, lays finely spun.

- - - - -

Copyright © John Herlihy

Thursday 19 June 2025