the power of language

the word shapes the void

can it be true that nothing exists
without a conscious mind to notice it?
Einstein said so, I think:
the tree doesn’t fall in the forest
unless we’re there to hear it,
or until we’re there to see it,

and, further, can it be true that for consciousness to be real,
it needs to be defined,
and that it only gains definition
when language, whether of word or number or body,
shapes the world into meaning, into existence,

in the beginning was the Word, the naming,

and nothing we do has more power
than the language that we use,
and that uses us,
to order our universe.

every child becomes a creator
as he or she and language
master and serve each other.

by Henry Walker
September 3, ’10

two light poems

becoming one with the tools

our electronic tools shape us,
I was just handwriting “committee”
and a part of me looked at it
to see if it got a red underline,
if the spellcheck had a problem
with the number of “t”s.


by Henry Walker
August 16, ’10

writing and the food network

in my writing
I come into the poem
often like a newly-arrived top chef,
who takes all the planning, preparing,
done by the sous chefs
who have worked below my consciousness,
and, with that within me, before me,
I pull a whole together
and present it, with a flourish, on the page.

by Henry Walker
August 28, ’10