tentative, and audacious

the seed, and hope

here in mid-winter

I like to start my tomatoes inside:

I choose varieties that the seed catalogue shouts to me

will respond well to my desire for the perfect fresh tomato,

I prepare my cup containers of potting soil

and carefully place 2-3 precious seeds in each,

I keep them wet and warm, and hope. . .

today the first seedlings broke into the air--

tentative, audacious, full of hope in their reaching to the sky

and full of doubt in the frailty of the earliest shoot,

here in mid-winter

I also like to produce a play

in which middle schoolers reach out 

of the stasis that calls to them

and venture forth into the audacious tentativeness

that risks failure while it reaches toward the sky,

there’s a lot of reality that challenges each reach upward:

how sure the foundation from which to reach,

how sure the confidence with which to reach,

how blasting the winds from peers, or culture, or self,

and yet the seed takes the risk,

the plant reaches into being,

the actor opens self to what can be,

I hope for reach plant to release

the awesome reality of a perfect fresh tomato,

I joy when each actor releases a performance

that binds us in a spell,

the excellence of the potential within the seed of self

reaches toward the sky, and makes it!

by Henry H. Walker

February 6, ’14