Saturday, March 1, 2014

Community with the Inanimate

Had some rocks in for coffee or babysat a brood of snowflakes recently?

Yesterday morning our headmaster opened our professional development day reading an excerpt from Parker Palmer’s book To Know As We Are Known. He mentioned education bringing scholars into community--with the teacher, with each other, and also with the subject matter--not just literature and history, but even the inanimate universe like rocks and math equations. Suddenly I thought of a poem I’d written more than two decades ago for one of my daughters on her second birthday:

A rock is a rock is a rock
Is heavy, hard, and old.
It can hold your foot to cross a rill,
Or skip on the pool below the mill, 
Or patiently bear an ancient hill,
For from the time the stars were born
Until they all burn out
All the rocks will sing
In their rocky way
Their heavy, hard, and rocky hymn.

Water is water is water
Is fluid, formless, wet.
It can gather deep in a summer pool,
Or fill your cup, all fresh and cool,
Or glint on a spider web like a jewel,
For from the time the stars were born
Until they all burn out
All water will sing
In its watery way
Its fluid, formless, watery hymn.

A flower is a flower is a flower
Is living, leafy, bright.
It can cheer the world with a vivid hue,
Or scent the day on the rising dew,
Or make a fairy crown for you,
For from the time the stars were born
Until they all burn out
All flowers will sing
In their flowery way
Their living, leafy, flowery hymn.

Caitlin is Caitlin is Caitlin
Is active, young, and strong.
You can pick up your toys (or make a start),
Or share your cake (at least a part),
Or mind your mom with a happy heart,
For from the time the stars were born
Until they all burn out
You were made to sing 
In your Caitliny way
Your active, young, Caitliny hymn.

Doing my bit for community, I dug up the poem, sent it to the headmaster, and then read it to my social studies and English department colleagues in the closing meeting of the day. And now I share it with you.


May we all find the pleasure of doing what we were created to do, and feeling the pleasure of the Creator as we do it, in community with all the rest of creation.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your poem here, Kim! I hope you will print it someday - illustrated!

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  2. Thanks for the encouragement, Rhonda!

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