grounding

Indian Gap

we immerse ourselves in a recreated Cherokee village










and hear of how an earlier people, a more basic people,
lived their lives below and among these grand old mountains,
a gentler touch, maybe because they didn’t have bulldozers,
either in their minds or in earth-smashing fact,
maybe because they knew the world
and they knew themselves,
and they knew how and when to yield
and how and when to not,

here native peoples crossed these mountains
by foot on this trail for near 10,000 years,
from when this high up was above tree line
to when Europeans spread across the land like the spread of a virus,














my students spread about the Gap
with spruce-fir for their backdrop,
soft fragrant needles below,
prickly bark at the back,
needles on the trees so dark
it’s as if black merged with the green,
a wild cherry tree lightly in bloom at the center,








a muse must be whispering to each
who sit here so open and capable,
processing place and experiences,

and I yearn to hear
what the universe messages through them,
as each seeks to make sense of place, experience, and self.

by Henry H. Walker
May 23, ’11