moments held

 to notice the moment

William Carlos Williams penned a line that profoundly shakes me,

his words often revisit me, as they just did today:

"so much depends on a red wheelbarrow. . ."

on many levels that's just not true:

very little depends on that wheelbarrow,

except in the moment it is perceived,

in the moment it is appreciated,

in the moment it is used,

his line came hard at me today

as our rental car sped across the New Mexican landscape,

when I truly saw a bush in situ,

sure of itself, held in its neighborhood,

a neighborhood created by the artist who uses geology and botany,

who uses change and stasis and creates innumerable tableaus in the landscape,

place after place created to live potential moments of being known for itself,

I feel the universe loves, and gratuitously creates,

and we honor that creation when we notice,

so much depends on every moment,

and so much can be lost

when we don't notice the moment that is before us

if we can but see.

by Henry H. Walker

March 9, ‘26