we are driven

 

who's the driver?

what drives us?

I have long felt

great currents pulling at me, pushing at me,

I am in a stream across which I want to move,

instead, I am challenged

by the stream's imperative

to rush downhill and take me with it,

it cares nothing for my desire to make my own way forward,

I am irrelevant to its imperative,

metaphorically, I know that my emotional currents 

care nothing for my will,

I need to let them carry me a ways,

to learn from them,

until I can reassert my will

and find myself a new footing,

though farther down the stream bed 

than I hoped for in my naivité,

I know we are driven,

the dark currents below our sureness

need to be embraced,

before they're resisted,

we contain multitudes, or, rather,

we are contained in multitudes,

our current is buffeted by currents

we need to notice, to acknowledge,

to move with,

and then maybe beyond.

by Henry H. Walker

August 23, ‘26