in search of lessons

 as disciple to master

early in my poetic journey

I felt as disciple to master

when I sought to understand the natural world,

I wandered the woods in search of lessons,

hiked up and down mountains

to figure out their stories,

watched carefully the seasons,

looked through each lens I could find at the Earth:

the geological, the zoological, the botanical, the meteorological,

the constancy of a mountain top,

the ephemeral moments of a wildflower,

the enduring will of a tree,

like the Earth’s contours, I have been transformed by a stream,

my pulse quickened by a bear, an elk, an owl,

I have sought to know the children

so that I can know the mother,

we come from Gaia,

and we should know her well,

before we embark on our own paths.

by Henry H. Walker

November 26, ‘22