The One True Gift
by John Herlihy
The whole world divided into parts,
Opposites that will lie forever apart.
In the world of opposites lies mystery,
Mystery that finds its solution in unity.
Light forever in balance with darkness,
Agitation in balance with peacefulness.
Hope tinged with those feelings of despair,
Beginnings and endings bounded by prayer.
One half lies there in the presence of love,
Therein lies all joy, hope, intimacy and light.
The other half there in the absence of love,
Therein lies all gloom, as in the dark of night.
Love alone can serve as over-arching bridge,
Love, the one true gift, serving as pledge.
Love speaks not, knows nothing of death,
All I understand, I understand through love.
Everything that comes into being and exists,
Everything exists and lives only due to love.
Such feeling, as if inventing fire or the wheel,
As time in eternity, so many minutes to steal.
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Copyright © John Herlihy
Thursday 17 April 2025
The Mystery of Loving Another
by John Herlihy
Who can fathom the mystery of loving another,
Mystery that reveals itself as some rarity other.
I see this beautiful body surrounded by a glow,
The face, the smile, the lips crowned with halo.
A vision of beatitude that no one else can see,
No one else can fathom this lure of mystery.
My own reaction a growing surge of wonder,
My heart beating so wildly it feels as thunder.
My whole sense of self suddenly stripped away,
I bow down to this vision hoping that it will stay.
Love, what is love, a feeling captured in a word,
The sweetness, longing, song of an ancient bird.
You step tentatively forward, extend your hand,
I place my hand in yours, an abiding signal grand.
My heart doth sing but in my mind I simply weep,
Never did I think such an intense love to meet.
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Copyright © John Herlihy
Sunday 27 July 2025
Romantic Poems without the Romance
John Herlihy
Romantic poems without all the romance,
Left behind feelings found as if in a trance.
A poem on death that really celebrates life,
A poem on mortality that highlights strife.
Not necessarily poems radical or political,
But instead poems that stir the heart lyrical.
Concerns of the human condition as ideals,
Virtues of our inner life true reality reveals.
How we face challenges, deal with struggle,
How nature’s beauty and mystery juggle.
Forget not how we put love in the equation,
Meet it head on without the tangent evasion.
Romantic notions whether on love or hatred,
All bound together, verses in a realm sacred.
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Copyright © John Herlihy
Saturday 9 August 2025
