bring out the best

San Francisco

land and water release some of their genius here,
and it seems to me no city does better
in releasing the genius that we humans can express,
spectacular restaurants are easy to notice,
yet the fulsome garden of ethnicities which flourishes here
should be noticed, too,
each variation of the whole
with its flavors unique and commonalities true,
plus I celebrate its museums, music, drama, dance,
all the ways head & heart & body can release their best,
my 30 something son has found here
both the runner within and a company which celebrates
his raw ability and developed skills with both people and product,

too many elsewhere feel only the rightness
of the meat & potato of their worlds,
the truth of their answers to what is right,
and are challenged by the smorgasbord
of the diversity embraced here,
they seek to diminish it in hopes
that such reduction will make them larger
yet instead it makes them small.

by Henry H. Walker
August 13, ’10