Saturday, November 4, 2017

a wonderful, intense drama



the play as revelation

when the two leads took their bows,
I stood up to applaud them,
with tears in my eyes
and awe in my soul 
at what they and their comrades
wrought upon the stage tonight,

at the end of a long week,
with all of us within the recursive nightmare
our current politics visit upon us,
here was a profound play pulled off,
created by high schoolers
just coming full into their power,

they call up a  slice of the truth of our past
we’d rather not remember,
when minds felt surer the smaller they got,
the more moral when they rushed to judge,
St. Peter was counting and the Pharisees were in charge,
the letter of old rules trumps what love demands of us,

one character, so lost in her own desires,
that all others became but means to an end,
an end that only serves her,

a director who knows the stage as revelation,
revelation of thought, of feeling,
of students coming into their power,

I am pulled into the students’ world,
and I am called to appreciate whenever, however,
the greatness of spirit can find the way to manifest,
for a time.

by Henry H. Walker

November 3, ‘17