at the heart of everything alive
we need to reach toward the future,
for life itself is of enduring--
only that which lasts can remember yesterday
and anticipate tomorrow,
if only in our drives below consciousness,
humans are relatively recent members
in a club of plants and animals,
they that were, many that are,
and all that want to be, still, into the future,
I love the parent inherent within us
who will deny the selfish self and embrace the larger self,
I am undone by that impulse--
that which drives us to have kids, even not of our genes,
undone by how well that impulse can drive
the straight and the gay, the partnered or the single,
I am also in awe of the grandparent,
they of the club I am so happy to have joined,
for to the grandparent, three links in the grand chain manifest in front of us,
the newest aching toward keeping itself going,
at least that’s how it seems to me,
the grandparent has the luxury
of not having to do the heavy consuming work
of forging and maintaining,
plus we can know in more dimensions
what is being wrought
and know it to be wonderful,
we can feel that the best we feel within us
can seem to reveal itself as true as we can hope for
in the smile, the words, the self
that we deeply hope cannot be denied.
by Henry H. Walker
April 1, ’11
No comments:
Post a Comment