Friday, November 18, 2011

back and out of the source

Closing With the Primary

primary sources draw me
like a moth to the flame:

within a working farm
the most basic to life reveals itself
as plant and animal animate the inanimate,
transforming the Sun into substance--
plants that supply our table
and the animals that add to the supply,

I feel close to the source when I’m around
where people order the richness of the land
with rows of vegetables, grains,
the earthy treasures of potato and yam,











with fruit trees who tithe back cherry & peach & apple
that others might live,
with the goat and the cow who transform leaf into milk and meat,
with the chicken from whom eggs seem to be made by scratch,

we can forget the source,
the primary reality from where and how
comes the food that allows us to be,

as long as we have food enough to live,
there is nothing more basic, more primary, truer, than love,
we need a “why” for the “what” of our existence,
and it is the other who give us meaning,
early on the parent from whom we come
and who helps us order our growth,

yet basic and primary to who we are
is the choice to bond with the other,
to connect with someone we love and who loves us,
of course, the species needs bonding for procreation,
for out of the darkness, light needs to appear,
another link in its chain thrown across the looming chasm,

yet I find marriage itself,
the commitment of one to the other,










the making of a whole,
qualitatively larger and more real than the sum of its parts,
is a primary source upon which the best of society and culture can build,

weddings should be of tears and joy
for every time one commits to the other
who we are as a species grows larger and truer
to the hope of our being,

I love a primary source for in it I close with what is most real
and upon which all else is built.








by Henry H. Walker
November 13, ’11

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