how much we can be. . .

an immensity within the eye

what are we all about at our most basic?
that place where we are most true
 to that within us which is of most worth?

to thrive, physically,
is a great gift,

yet who we are in the physical is as nothing
as to who we are, or really who we can be,
in the reach of our deeper self to the light, and even to the stars,
for we are of such stuff as some of us call the divine,

I see in my students an immensity within their eyes,
a finest quality that is not rare,
save in how tenuous and hesitant it can be
to let itself be released,

I love to photograph my students
and I work to wait to snap the picture
until the eye twinkles,
as the hidden glory within risks a look out,

within each of us is a competition
as lesser selves within push themselves forward
and claim to be us to others, and to our self,

as a teacher I feel a calling
to help the best within the studentfind a true path through the labyrinth,

and, when each can realize who it is, and who it can be,
the learner is released into a power
that only is thwarted if it chooses to go a wrong way.

by Henry H. Walker
August 31, ’12