FootprintsintheWind.com

Play of the butterflies.

:- Doug.

A butterfly among the ancients I appear to be.

:- Doug.

We need our as yet unborn ancestors. Spell it any way.

:- Doug.

Avoid saying all
leave room
we imagine too

:- Doug.

I choose to be vexatious, to not let you off your hook, to require you to test your guesses and convictions around our generations.

:- Doug.

It is our work to think us together that we might think the world together.

:- Doug.

We perhaps should be seeking out conflicts among us. These may be our growing places. These are at least the touchy places that call out to be known.

:- Doug.

What tensions might we have with our 11th generation grandchildren? What outright conflicts? Here’s meat for our conversation.

:- Doug.

We cannot march over 300 years to a result—but we can advance.

:- Doug.

How can we help people of 300 years on? What do we imagine they are facing? What like that have we faced?

:- Doug.

The poetry to which I aspire is not a big thing, but imperceptible.

:- Doug.

The purpose of poetry
to say something
bigger than the words

:- Doug.

You will be unknown
Your effects will be imperceptible
Even so work the generations

:- Doug.

Friend, into you, into working your generations.

:- Doug.

We are aspiring, breathing upon you generations.

:- Doug.

So the work of poetry is, by its roots, making, composing, creating, placing together, and in that sense, forming, shaping, as the poet shapes words and works them.

So we are working the generations.

:- Doug.

It will take 2048 of us to get one person 11 generations from now. Each will have 2048 lineages from this generation. To take in one another each person—now and then—will need to become skilled at reading between these lines. What can you read of your 11th generation grandparents?

:- Doug.

To hear across generations we must first devise a way to get them into our hearts. To like them.

:- Doug.

As we form people in religions and citizens for democracy so we might form ancestors for the work of humanity. Attention must be paid so that our precious gift of diversity does not fragment.

:- Doug.

The field of human knowledge is broad. The fields of human concerns are deep. To touch generations we’ll need to choose, and if a few of us can agree so much better, and if we choose something to stir the human imagination: well, then!

:- Doug.

What is our role in the story of humanity? What is the role of that story?

:- Doug.

We learn for our grandchildren.

:- Doug.

I need to trust you
to take my story
small into yours

:- Doug.