in pursuit of harmony

 

of slope, stream, forest, and us

every time we make our way back to the Smokies,

I intensely feel the call to savor these moments

of slope and stream and forest,

where nature, geology and biology,

are still free enough to remind us

that our dominion over the Earth 

is temporary, limited, illusion,

we need to be slapped awake

like that first shock of early morning air in the winter

or with the brusque reset of our systems

when we immerse in a mountain stream,

we need to be humbled, 

to be put in our place,

and we are, if we open enough,

this house, this home. hard against the creek,

was created by my parents

as a place to fully find ourselves as family,

as a place to build toward community and harmony,

as a place in which the best within us

can work to be true to the best outside of us,

every moment here can open us to glory,

if we're lucky,

we can find that within

that can harmonize with the music 

that is all around us.

by Henry H. Walker

August 19, ‘26