When heavy hangs the soul - if soul there be <br />in such a state of abject loneliness - <br />and all Creation's steeped in misery <br />and all bad influences join life's mess, <br /> <br />and melancholy blackens; hope recedes; <br />faith's gone; and love and charity lie hid; <br />and nothing seems good for the mind to heed, <br />no action springs to mind to lift the lid <br />that sits, black monster, on the love of truth, <br />of goodness, beauty - all this gone from hence; <br /> <br />then - wine, that warms the heart of man, must serve; <br />and hops, that give of God's benevolence: <br />and at the measured glass's end - God bless - <br />the possibility of happiness...<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0334-in-vino-veritas-in-birra-bonitas-in-praise-of-grape-and-hop/
