What is all when all is told?

June 10, 2010

What is it all?
What is it all when all is told,
The ceaseless toiling for fame or gold
The fleeting joy or the bitter tears?
We are only here for a few short years,
Nothing our own but the silent past:
Loving or hating, nothing can last.
Each pathway leads to the silent fold,
Oh! What is it all when all is told?

What is it all? A grassy mound
Where day or night there is never a sound
Save the soft low moum of the passing breeze
As it lovingly rustles the silent trees.
Or a thoughtful friend with a whispered prayer
May sometimes break the stillness there,
The hurry away from the gloom and cold,
Oh! What is it all when all is told?

What is all, just passing through,
A cross for me, and a cross for you.
Ours seem heavy while other seem light
But God in the end makes all things right.
He “tempers the wind” with such loving care,
He knows the burden that each can bear.
Then changes life’s gray into heavenly gold.
Ah! That is all when all is told.
Mona Tierney. Irish poet

8 comments on “What is all when all is told?
  1. Cindy Uribe says:

    My 88 year old Irish patient recited this to me and I fell in love with this poem. He didn’t know the author, so I will be happy to tell him next time I see him. God Bless

  2. Rosemary says:

    I received this poem years ago when I was in Ireland and saved it to re-read over and over.

  3. Bernadette says:

    My mum, who was Irish, used to read this to me as a child and I have always remembered it.

  4. dtck Squires says:

    My father would recite this poem 60 years ago, it’s the first time I have seen it in print lt brings back memories dd

  5. Joan JOHnson says:

    WONDERFUL…lyrical and meaningful. Worthwhile to commit to memory! Joan

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