hold the past & embrace the future

change, and sameness   

the more things change,
the more they remain the same,
the more they remain the same,
the more things change,

a tradition: to bring my students each year to the Smokies,
we stop at Krispy Kreme on the way,
glazed doughnuts and a dozen chocolate cream-filled,
a long car ride,
a stop to appreciate a panorama of mountains,
the creek,
the same meals of burrito and spaghetti,
cereal and sandwiches,
the same joy of loving the cabin,
of loving the mountains,

yet the people change,
the group never the same, even if it has the same people,

each year has the same seasons,
the same dance of Earth & Sun,
yet how clouds and cold move to the dance
can change as if to tease us with what to expect,

technology seems to break us free of the past
yet the telegraph seems to me to echo in cell phone texting,
digital triumphs in music, then vinyl resurfaces,

what makes us human can seem lost in change,
then find itself again we we return to the simple,
to meeting the other’s eye,
to care,
to love.


by Henry H. Walker
April 20, ’12