Threads of Life
by John Herlihy
The journey of the thread begins as a simple string,
Mystical its inspiration, melodic as it begins to sing.
In the court of tradition and culture sounds a gavel,
As a thread in the tapestry of life begins to unravel.
The line of the horizon as a thread in earth’s womb,
The thread a lone survivor with the world its loom.
Contrivance of a simple line with a mission sublime,
If we gaze upon the horizon, we think of the Divine.
Threads hold things together, cloth, stories, memory,
Weaving webs of interest from fragility to continuity.
The fine thread of a story unravels from life’s spool,
The plot, the characters, the setting, part of the fuel.
A sewing thread with no pretensions to appearance,
The lonely thread lost in the weave, a disappearance.
Yet precisely upon the thread the unity of a fabric lies,
Binding together cottons and linens with defiant sighs.
The determined little thread makes no effort to be bold,
Makes its silent way thru the weave its story to be told.
Combining the warp and the weft into a tightened knot,
A thousand times over until the final product be bought.
The subtle sophistication in passing thru the needle’s eye,
Ah, such humility, such simplicity, the narrow gap to defy.
Once thru, the needle goes on its business, thread in tow,
Stitch by stitch, row by row, the needle and thread sew.
We follow all the intricacies in the thread of the story,
In a forest, we marvel at threads of light shining in glory.
Threads of a tapestry, with color woven into the weave,
The morose threads of sad thoughts as we sit and grieve.
Who can forget the compelling story of Ariadne’s thread,
To solve the issue of getting lost, heart pounding in dread.
Ariadne gives Theseus a thread as his source of power,
To safely enter the labyrinth so as to slay the Minotaur.
In Greek mythology, the three fates create life’s destiny,
Drawn from nothing, Clotho spins threads of possibility.
By cutting along the cloth Lachesis determines the length,
Atropos cuts the thread into life’s unity, its final strength.
In the Bible, Rahab hangs a scarlet thread from a window,
Sacred covenant and sign of protection in the land of Jericho.
The Sufi thread, the subtle thread, connecting to the Divine,
The trust, the love, the remembrance in this thread sublime.
The world in trouble with many difficult needles to thread,
The needle of war threaded with strands of peace instead.
The strands of life with body, mind, heart in connectivity,
Ever seeking, interweaving, the luminous thread of unity.
Until the day thread passes thru the narrow needle’s eye,
A final moment when luminous thread soars into the sky.
The thread of thought, thread of desire, the thread of light,
The thread of the world that weaves thru the day and night.
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Copyright © John Herlihy
Thursday 8 January 2026
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My seamstress partner not only alters and sews clothes for her customers, she ties up with threads everything for my well-being with her love.
Ron