at the heart of teaching

within & without

as teachers we meet and we talk,
and we seek how best we can act,
our goal that the best in our students can act,
can find where within them is the potential
that can realize how to be actual,
each then can open anew to the wonder and effort
that it takes to develop a skill,
to ask a question, to find an answer,
to venture effort until it’s right,
to feel right within
with each connection made,
with every taste of excellence achieved,

for me the secret is to know each individual before me
and to find what to say, what to do,
that can help each person cut through the nonsense
and realize the wholeness within
and see where to go to be even more real, full, sure,
all of us need strength to escape obfuscatory thickets
and get on to a path that leads up to the light.

by Henry Walker
March 21, '11