who is HW?

I am plural

do I contain multitudes

or do multitudes contain me?

a Jewish prayer remembers those gone

in wind and sun, the beauties of each moment,

so am I out there now?

for I see that of God in all plants and animals,

in every welling-up of beauty,

and in every person, 

thus connecting all into a wholeness,

yet we each need to find the hole 

into which the unique shape of our individuality can fit,

I teach middle school and lead with my heart,

eldered by my head, the hole for me as profession,

I am also parent and grandparent, photographer and poet,

punster and scout of the wild,

the calm surface of my plate 

rides upon intense magma of feeling

which easily erupts into volcanoes:

joy often laughing forth and

sorrow ready to tear forth at any time,

my heart also leaps me into others

and I feel as they feel for a time,

I try to hold multitudes 

and somehow they are me, too. 

by Henry H. Walker

January 12, ’15