a great awakening

furious contemplation

when she was new to the world
I felt the power of the long dreaming
pull her back away from consciousness,

now that she’s half a year upon the world
I feel the power of a great awakening
pull her out into
discovery,
intense thought,
furious contemplation,

the last few nights she’s been fussier
as she has resisted sleep
and thus missing people & experience
that are as food to her soul now,

she wants to know, to understand,
and she doesn’t want to miss anything,

so she comes back from proffered sleep
ready for any new act the world will play for her,

and, when she sees one of us for whom she’s ready,
increasingly she feels a rightness and releases a smile,
and we are even more undone,
as she comes even closer to realizing it all.


by Henry H. Walker
December 24, ’08