of Izzy & Rachel

the self endures?

the self senses itself
within the whirl of people, events, things--
information, feeling floods in through the senses,
amidst that flood and the simultaneous upwellings
of reactions, desires, denials,
the self seems to coalesce out of all the possibilities,









it learns to realize it exists, and will exist, across imagined time,
that despite the fear, the despair when a want is thwarted
that future moments exist within which desires might be met
by a self that endures,

language and self seem to evolve together:
as two starts to turn to three
language explodes like a great firework overhead:
the tongue facile enough for all the sounds,
the mind developed enough to hold structure after structure
and to pile up word after word,













the tool and its wielder get to work:
every observation, every fact contains within itself question after question,
each of which demands attention:
“Why?” & “Why?” again and again,
the product of a mind that needs to know,
smiles the product of a heart that needs to connect, to give,

a soul releases itself to be,
and words are a way that let us know it is.








by Henry Walker
November 6, ’10













beauty from the soul

our 5 year old granddaughter, going on 6,
grows up before our eyes,
the primary colors in her changes of a few years ago
are more pastel now, more of hues and subtlety,
within her mind connections grow more and more complex,
the prides herself on mental math:
“What is 400 - 1?”
and moments later “399” answers,
the same with “200-1” and “600 - 1,”
so I ask “What is 1000 - 1?”,
an added layer of complexity,
so she ventures 2 or 3 answers that don’t work,
then you can almost see a “click” in her head,
and she gets it:
“999,”








nothing she sees or hears gets by her--
all the social relations, the adult whispers she can overhear,
the examining of self? sometimes too much and too harsh,
a desire for control right there--
wanting a person, an action immediately,
yet learning patience,
she feels intensely and works hard to live with the intensity
without denying any of this sensitive part of herself,






she knows the buttons to push to annoy her little sister,
and she does push them when she can get annoyed with the younger,
she also knows the buttons to push to help her sister get back to happy,
and she quite often pushes them to help,

I love my Rachel’s mind, her feistiness, and her heart,
the complexities that multiply within her
and the beauty that beams from her soul.








by Henry Walker
November 6, ’10