in or out of sync with the celestial dance?

 

Autumnal Equinox ‘22

the Equinox, an Equinox,

a cusp when one reality shifts into another:

summer becomes fall, winter becomes spring,

the celestial truth often much clearer

than how the day feels,

yet this year seemed exact 

as 9/22 hit a record for warmth,

and 9/23 brought in cool, dry air,

our ginkgo is still green,

as chlorophyll works hard to use the light,

yet a gorgeous, burgeoning yellow

starts to reveal itself low on the tree,

the garden still produces

but the tomato plants slow in what they give us,

as do the Kentucky Wonder pole beans and the okra,

the pumpkin know where the year is,

some already ripe, 

more hurry to grow into their fullness,

the school year is in full swing,

and many make hay with their efforts,

as the celestial year wanes, the school year waxes,

how much should we follow where the Sun and Earth’s dance leads,

and how much should we swim against the celestial current?

by Henry H. Walker

September 23, ‘22

to be there for the student

 a way forward

I feel called,

I see the student before me

in the glory of feeling and expressing self,

some embrace the other and the moment,

and some reject optimism and connection,

each is there and I can be there for them, with them,

one way opens up ripples of connection and positivity,

another way sees and knows the dark behind the light,

each student real, and true to self,

though the latter hurts more than the former,

I make the effort to see, to notice,

to speak to the child, to the parent, if possible,

for the way forward can be hard,

the risk to be and to venture question, idea, reaction,

wrapped in a potential loneliness

as one can step away from peers 

who are trapped in the moment,

I want to be there

each time one of my students chooses to risk revelation,

and to share the indeterminacy of feeling lost

until the step forward reveals itself.

by Henry H. Walker

September 23, ‘22

connections across generations

 

the grandparent, within

I offer up an assignment to write a poem

maybe about a relationship

with a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a cousin, a neighbor,

and the 12 year olds in my class quietly get to work,

many write of the grandparent,

the tightness of this connection with him, with her,

and then write eloquently, wrenchingly,

of the loss of the grandparent,

who was suddenly not there any longer,

or diminished after a stroke,

yet each who is still there

within the grandchild’s memory,

within the grandchild’s heart,

within the grandchild’s love,

each grandchild embraces the present with gusto, with enthusiasm,

and lives their moments as fully

as the grandparent would have wished,

all of us construct a surface self we give to the world,

and we fear “too much information” 

if we were to show the roiling depths within us,

where we are anxious and insecure, and hurting,

I felt today the students’ sharing as a gift,

for they were real and true to themselves,

and let us glimpse the amazing person within

who dares to feel, and be,

and hold to the connection with grandparent.

by Henry H. Walker

September 16, ‘22

the possibility of each child

 to fulfill the universe’s hope

in the movie, The Lord of the Rings,

an elf is leaving Middle Earth for the undying lands,

till she sees a child running through the woods,

a child who looks up and sees her,

and she the child,

as if the future is calling to her,

she answers the call,

and stays in this world,

because a child can be there,

and she can be there for him,

every year I feel the same,

I see the possibility of the next child

who works as hard as he, as she, can,

to use the hours, the days, we are given,

to become what the universe hoped for us

when we were born,

may I be there for you,

may you be there for yourself,

I believe in all that can be

if all of us but work together to make it so,

let’s work together, and make it so!

by Henry H. Walker

September 9, ‘22