FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1936

There is a cheap hope, a hope for results. It is cheap because it denies anything will get in the way. It is cheap because it brings fear on the other side of the coin, therein devaluing the hope. There is a dear hope, the deep “ability,” as Vaclav Havel wrote, “to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” This deep hope is anchored not in outcomes but in work for specific people.

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Dear hope trusts
though it does not
understand

:- Doug.

When, with generations of grandchildren
in mind, I read
anything
they color what I hear
and gently guide
a few dance steps
for grandchildren of grandchildren

:- Doug.

Imagine a better humanity. Imagine they are your grandchildren. Imagine a specific woman or man. Imagine this one a child of your imagination, of your stories, of your poetry.

:- Doug.

This is a course in changing the course.

:- Doug.

What’s old got to do with it? Old offers. Offers: experience, observation, reflection, standing a-part, perspective.

:- Doug.

Imagination knows
what did we forget?
imagination offers

:- Doug.

We can be prophetic
justice pro-claiming

:- Doug.

Imagination generates worlds and human qualities alternative to what we are seeing.

:- Doug.

Poetry asks if the impossible is necessary.

:- Doug.

Poetry is the practice of imagination: keeping the present provisional and not absolute; keeping open the possibility of a future discontinuous with the present.

:- Doug.

Humanity over hope
share anguish
share amazement

:- Doug.

Song stands in conflict with decree.

:- Doug.

Poetic logic is circular
Poetic logic is spiral

:- Doug.

Will people ever become people?
Claiming and reclaiming imagination
away from domestication?

:- Doug.

So the members of our group studying storytelling ought to be encouraged to love the 300-year grandchild elders. Develop their own individual and collective relationships so that they can more fully take on their responsibility to the generations.

:- Doug.

What is the value of attending grandchildren? How might we witness them?

:- Doug.

What is the force that comes between you and the grandchildren?

:- Doug.

Grandchild: do I see your face before you are born?

:- Doug.