0334 In Vino Veritas, In Birra Bonitas: In Praise Of Grape And Hop

When heavy hangs the soul – if soul there be
in such a state of abject loneliness –
and all Creation’s steeped in misery
and all bad influences join life’s mess,

and melancholy blackens; hope recedes;
faith’s gone; and love and charity lie hid;
and nothing seems good for the mind to heed,
no action springs to mind to lift the lid
that sits, black monster, on the love of truth,
of goodness, beauty – all this gone from hence;

then – wine, that warms the heart of man, must serve;
and hops, that give of God’s benevolence:
and at the measured glass’s end – God bless –
the possibility of happiness…