a force of nature

 

Martha

Martha:

a force of nature,

and of carefully-crafted will,

I can imagine many strong ancestors

who, too, had their dream,

and who, too, asserted for self and family and the future,

with the indomitable spirit I still see in Martha,

in a month an election is coming

and she and her friends use her garage to disseminate literature

to help inform the electorate

of the issues and choices available,

the natural world has long been a love,

no one I know in the family 

is better than she as to birds,

where to swim,

where to live near the ocean and its great gifts,

when society was reluctant to allow open doors for women,

she still found the way to exercise her mind

all the way to a Ph.D. and Cern,

she labored to help students

in college after college on the coast

to find their way to use their gifts like she has,

no one I know is more devoted to family than she:

eyes a-twinkle, particularly as to sisters and their offspring,

and to  first cousins, spoudes,  and their their next generations,

drawn to each new and old manifestation of the bloodline

and of the through line of her culture,

time and aging seek to hold her back, 

but will and love are still powerful

in this child of Kentucky

who sings the song of herself with enduring power.

by Henry H. Walker

October 2, ‘26