to be a sous chef

a newness


every mother lives a truth
that distances itself from me,
despite how much I want to matter they way they do,
as much as I love my children and grandchildren,
I feel like a sous chef to a master,

I wonder if a craftsman crafts so as to be his own chef,

I garden and I teach
yet in each I believe
I but husband miracles beyond me,

when I write I feel of worth
as something new comes into the world,
even here, though, I feel not the creator
and more the conduit through which I open myself to the greater,

if my role is to help
or if my role is to appreciate,





I still love to be there at each new birthing
when hope finds a new way into the world.






by Henry H. Walker
March 4, ‘09