I write to capture

I reach for the shape

as I write,

I feel for a wholeness just beyond what I can see,

a hesitant shape that seems to be there in the fog,

as I venture words in my first reach for it,

and then in the recasting,

something within me judges the adequacy

of what comes to my words

to what comes to my sense of the shape before me,

the constructions, the words, change

to focus on what organizes in the symbiosis

of what already is and what the creative in me

feels to be a newness that can come forward.

by Henry H. Walker

March 29, ’13

equinox and contention

Spring of Conflict

in abstract the Spring Equinox has a balance about it

with daylight and darkness equal:

poised halfway between the Solstices,

looking back to when dark held sway,

looking forward to when light will hold sway,

yet I feel this morning,

as a near full moon sets to the west

and a bright sun rises in the east,

that this time is a contentious duality in conflict with itself,

not a peaceful harmony with all resolved:

the southern hope of bud and seed strain to release their growth

while brisk northern cold dares them to do so,

the frost and the flower fight for the day,

how appropriate that college basketball climaxes at this time

in abrupt teeters and totters as first one, and then the other, is higher,

and two days later contention resumes,

we are drawn to conflict in our stories,

maybe because life itself is organization versus chaos,

the new over the old until the new becomes the old,

spring can have a hard birth as if we’re not ready for the new ones

and our energies can be dormant and easily slip into nap 

and avoidance of what needs to be done,

change can be harsh in feel and action

for what was does not easily wrench itself into what will be,

now, what is, feels torn between stasis and a future so unknown it terrifies,

such moments have the fearful power of creation itself,

of life’s first step from the simplicity of dissolution

to the risk that every cell ventures with its being.

by Henry H. Walker

March ’13

teacher and student fully present

to be fully engaged

when I am most engaged as a teacher

the world feels right to me,

as who I am finds ways

to release the potential within my abilities,

when I am able to engage so that the wheels of what I say and do

actually connect with and help the gears that help others run,

it can be helping pull off a play 

as the producer and enabler,

it can be a day of science,

it can be any time I find a way

for a book, for writing, for history, for volleyball,

to so engage me and student that I am fully present,

and so are they.

by Henry H. Walker

March 8, ’13

of Aaron, Isaac, Glenn Murphy, and . . .

power in the father

there’s power in the father,

I see the pride in a picture shared,

the wonder in just the existence of a precious new one,

words can bubble forth like fireworks

that want to reach high enough to touch the heavens they see,

fireworks which flare and fall back

for the sheer miracle of what has come to be

is beyond what we can fully touch.

by Henry H. Walker

March 8, ’13

of the quest to know

Science Day ’13

this week it’s Science Day!

those who can, find the way here to our school

to share their ways of understanding and acting upon the world,

and, by so doing, create windows

at which students can stand and gaze in wonder 

at what insights are accessible through the discipline of science,

as lived by those whose life is such discovery,

first, we explore the heavens and how space rocks abound,

some finding the way to roar through our atmosphere,

then I watch student after student focus microscope, eye, and soul

upon how questions and technology can reveal wonders

we didn’t even know were there,

on the walls, half of the school has found a way

to each open a window into how things are,

and, through the student’s work, we can appreciate each of them

and the world each seeks to help reveal itself and its truths,

each reveals the scientist within more and more

by acting as a scientist and actually experimenting with the world,

I loved to watch their peers pore over the posters

to get a feel for the power of the question asked the universe,

and the power with which a rigor in procedure can imbue the quest to know,

the workshops kaleidoscope:

a 3D printer, a microscope, a rocket,

the bones of a skeleton,

the insights of an aerial camera,

the revelations of gravity’s work through videoing its effects,

the power of braiding till one has a rope,

the wonder of the eye and the brain, DNA and how to be safe,

possibilities and threats within computer code,

in the afternoon, the senior vet of the N.C. Zoo,

reveals the why and how of doing the best we can

to honor and appreciate the lives of the animals there,

later, take a mousetrap, a ping pong ball, tape, and ingenuity,

and catapult for accuracy and for distance,

at the end of the day we celebrate those young scientists
who were most able to dot all the “i’s” 

and cross all the “t’s” in their experiments,

taking the wild brilliance of insight

and pairing it with the disciplined brilliance of procedure,

today we celebrate the power of the mind

to question well enough to start to know,

and the power of the mind to focus and organize well enough 

to get to a window through which understanding can dawn.

by Henry H. Walker

March 8, ’13

a father lost too early

to honor the father

who we are today

requires that others lived

and helped carry on the sacred charge

to bring new life into the world

and to charge that new life

to become the best it can become,

how wonderful it is that love and direction

can fill the soul of that of God in a young one,

that which seems to me to be

the reaching for how to shine bright,

I see a young woman, Pagui,

who is alive and true to who she is,

I see her father live in the twinkle of her eyes,

in the easy smile that presents itself upon her face,

in the fullness and glory with which she will be her best,

all of this is a way for her to remember and honor her father,

an extraordinary man I wish I had known,

as Pagui remembers him, in her tears and in her smiles,

she gives him the greatest gift a parent can ever receive,

a child who fully lives the dream

that every parent hopes for those that follow,

that each will find the way to be their best,

we are born to shine bright,

and, thank God, Pagui shines like the sun.

by Henry H. Walker

March 4, ’13

magic from water

the pebble and the flow

down by the creek, with light snow flurrying,

I see rock and rapids and pool as a stage

upon which I have played,

and where water has given a touch of magic

to my children and grandchildren, my students and connections,

all the way to folks I haven’t know were even here,

all these actors still seem to move about,

just shifted away,

like ghosts in the memory,

bubbles of being that pop up

and burst softly away,

my mother found this spot

and secured it with long hours of work over decades,

here where the kid in all of us can play,

where we can play with nature as a friend,

and without the corporate strings that love to make us dance for them,

those toys sold on screen and in stores,

bright and shiny baubles that don’t endure,

a large snowflake on my hand is there and quickly gone,

like the moments I treasure,

and the creek endures,

I love to apprentice myself to nature

and help new generations treasure the pebble and the flow.

by Henry Walker

March 2, ’13