the constancy of self

  continuity & change

the self has a constancy,
from its first precipitation out of possibility into actuality,
she within the infant’s open eyes appears
 
 and it seems to me she’s still there in the elder,
 

even if Alzheimer’s closes down the access,
 
the enormous developmental leaps of the first months and years
are more acquisition of tools for the master to use
than changes of essential self,
heralds and retinue are added
but the lord or lady remains much the same,

we look at photo albums, and faces change,
 
hair grows, and for those of us longer in the worldcolor bleaches away into purer and purer grey,
first bodies lengthen and later they often thicken,
I can see the adult inherent in the child
and I can feel the child resident within the adult,

our granddaughters sharply present themselves,
 
 

 devastating in the fullness of their self-possession:
words, numbers, understanding, memory, acuity
enough to overwhelm us,

I still feel constancy within their changes,
continuity of a nobility of a head and heart
that increasingly find how to reveal themselves,

the master constant within whirling seas of change.

by Henry H. Walker
June 25, ’12