Rhetorically Rhonabwy…

the wood flickers red.
the hearth burns so slow.
sparks give a voice
to the settling flame.
the waiting knights shift
and keep murmurs low.
two mighty men lean
intent on their game.

a battered sentry
flies in from the field,
weaves through the knights
to the side of his sire.
rude laughter and shouts
now heighten the roar
struck from the ravens
heard screeching in ire.

gray eyes meet green
with no trace of real dread.
‘your move, sir’ was all
that King Arthur said.

with never a wince
Owain stares at the scene,
while the fire
still sputters and glows.
the battle cry sounds
high like a keen
in the flurry that rages
and grows.

waving his hand,
Owain makes his next move.
dark knights take form
as they shape and they shift.
then down from the trees
a swirling wild hoard
slashes the pages
with talons so swift.

not changing expression
as he raises his head,
‘your move, Lord’
was all that Sir Owain said.

the dream is now over;
the pieces are crushed.
those brave men long lie
asleep in their dust.
the swords are all buried
bound in their rust.
the silence is deep;
the echoes are hushed.

yet sometimes, it’s told,
on the dark of the moon,
red fire is seen
in the midst of the gloom
and a promise still lingers:
Arthur’s not dead.
one day he’ll return.
that's what is said.


The Dream of Rhonabwy is a story written in the Welsh Red Book of Hergest. Lady Charlotte Guest incorporated the tale into her translation of the Mabinogion. Whether the story is to be read as a literal tale, enjoyed as a satire, or is to be interpreted as a mystical vision, is unclear.

Within my own mind, the chess scene takes place in a darkened inn. Arthur and Owain are each so intent upon besting the other that their moves on the chessboard become glamoured and are now replicated in reality out in the nearby fields. The two men ignore the pleas of knights, pages and ravens to halt the game. Finally Arthur, realizing that Owain is not the true enemy, shakes off the glamour and crushes the chess pieces, thus breaking the spell.

Sometimes we get so caught up in a game that we forget that it is just a game. Sometimes we confuse friends and enemies. Sometimes we have to shake off our illusions. Sometimes we need to listen to what other people say.

Sometimes we really need to wake up.

(copyright Wren Walker, 2010. photo by Fritz Jung)

It is okay to start over...

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

– Wild Geese; Mary Oliver

It is okay to start over.

It's okay to shake things up.

It’s okay to do what you love.

So sometimes we start over.

It is okay to start over.

(copyright text and photo, Wren Walker 2010)

voices in the wood...

voices in the wood

the dark has a tongue.

a leaf rustles.

a twig stops short

of snapping back.

the wind has a pitch.

it waits to speak,

draws in the mist,

puckering the moss.

memories whisper.

leave me a note.

carry my name

into the woods.

copyright WrenWalker 2010

photo by Rob Landry

Down The Road...

Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,

I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,

I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,

I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.*

This coming December, I will be five years down the road, five years since Skye died. For the first four, I was crazy. There is no better set of words to describe how I felt and how I acted: I was just crazy.

I ranted and raved over the slightest thing. I lashed out at the very people who were sincerely trying to understand and to help. My health suffered. I lost interest in life. I forgot things. I couldn’t write. I would rarely speak. My mind would settle into a neutral resting state, not thinking about anything in particular.

And that was on a good day…

Well, I will always be ‘a little crazy’ because being the mother of a dead child is crazy. It is. It is. And I think once we, as bereaved parents, come to that realization and accept ourselves as being perpetually ‘a little bit crazy', we can begin to regain some surer footing in this life.

Life holds a different meaning for me now than once it did. For my part, I have no other children. I will never have grandchildren. There is a space within me that will ever remain unfilled. I feel this core of loss always… but now I know I can carry it.

Because I am.

I am writing again. I stay in closer touch with my friends than I did before. I took up photography. I laugh a little more often. I weed my garden. I better understand how people can say and do absolutely crazy things when they are suffering indescribable personal pain and unrelenting grief.

I know because I will always be ‘a little bit crazy’ myself…

* Song of the Open Road; Walt Whitman.

(Photo by Fritz Jung)

Gaia To Gort…

What is the purpose of humanity? Why are we here?

These are the big questions usually left for the theologians to ponder. It's their job to work on the puzzle of human existence and the spiritual implications and ramifications thereof. Unfortunately for everyone who lives here on good old planet Earth, these experts in all things spiritual haven't proven that they are any better at answering those questions than anyone else. In fact, their track record pretty much stinks. I think that it's time we fire their pompous little butts -- since they obviously aren't getting the job done -- and turn the problem over to someone else.

But who? (I’m psychic so I knew that you would ask.) The most qualified people to determine the fate and direction of humankind ... sound of envelope being torn open... It's us! Yay! Humanity wins! Do try to keep those acceptance speeches short. There are a lot of us who would like to say something and seldom get the spotlight.

So now that we've sobered up from the post-awards parties and have given those incompetent 'experts' the boot. Now what?

Well, we might still need a bit of an organizational structure just to make it clear to any extraterrestrials monitoring our broadcasts that we are indeed serious about this project. We really want to avoid all of that ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ robotic intervention stuff if at all possible.

Nothin' to see here, Gort. Thanks for checking in though. And give our best wishes to Klaatu. Sorry about that whole bullet in the chest thingie.

Let's form a global committee! It will need a name. Something that sounds important. How about "The Universal Task Force on the Purpose and Future of the Human Race"? Too wordy. No good acronym there either. Hmm... I did consider a simple, “We Are Humans” but then we’d get stuck with the initials: W.A.H.

Oh dear.

How about "All Humankind" or A.H.? (Pronunciation: Ah). While it is admittedly only one letter away from the whiney wah, still I think it does aptly demonstrate our willingness to finally mature and move on up the spiritual yardstick. I understand ‘ah’ might also be an expression of relief or of comprehension. (In music, ‘ah’ is a syllable used to fill space. You know who you are.)

Okay then, “We are all humans. Hear us AH!”

Well, that all moved along rather nicely. We have formed our committee in order to determine the purpose of our existence and to explore the future of humanity. Intergalactic missile-shy aliens all across the galaxy are breathing (or whatever) a sigh of relief.

As a proposed starting point, I think that All Humankind would like to live in a more peaceful world, a world where a person is valued and respected simply because he or she is a human being. Most of us would agree that each human should have a decent standard of living. Some other non-negotiable rights for all of humanity are: nutritious food, clean water, access to basic health care, shelter, dignity, privacy, safety, justice, freedom from persecution, coercion or oppression, and freedom of religion and speech.

So how can it be that a good portion of the world’s people and our fellow A.H. members don't already have these things or these rights?

Well, it turns out that All Humankind doesn't yet possess what every organization, every corporation and every committee must have before it can move forward: a comprehensive mission statement. But before we start to formulate the A.H. mission statement, let's take just a few minutes to review a few things that we don't need. It will be time well spent. No sense repeating past mistakes.

1. We don't need any more religious platitudes.

Every religion has them and they haven't helped us out one bit thus far. Religions, for the most part, are divisive. Now, before you start sending me hate mail, I don't have anything against any religion. I follow one myself. It is just that each religion (with a scant few exceptions) more or less (usually more) operates on the premise that only when everyone on Gaia follows that one religion – and of course, it just happens to be their religion -- will there be peace and harmony and lions married to lamb chops.

And since that reasoning actually sounded somewhat plausible over several centuries to a large percentage of people who heard about it, humanity gave the various, sundry and even sometimes nefarious, designated religious headliners of the day some time to work out the kinks in the plan.

Okay. Time’s up!

It hasn't worked. So go do your own good deeds and encourage your religious organization to do likewise. Religious creeds cannot bring All Humankind together.

2. We don't need more political promises.

Politics are divisive. There will never be one political party that All Humankind will agree to endorse. (And a one-world political system would negate the integral human right of free choice.) As they operate now, each political party and individual politician works at bringing home the bacon for the people who elected him/her/it. Bad theory. Worse follow-through. A lot of bacon bits seem to get sprinkled into the salads of the politicians while the people who elected them eat naked lettuce. Politics pits this thing against that other thing and “may the best lobbyist win” is often the thing.

I suppose that we are stuck with politics. But we don't have to be stuck with politicians. Over 90 percent of incumbents get re-elected. Don't like where your local or national politicians sprinkle the bacon bits? Boot them out.

There will never be a one-world government -- one elected by the people, that is -- so let’s forget about politics as a productive venue for anything other than hashing out local and/or national issues and for generating a few juicy scandals.

3. We don't need any more reality television shows in order to make a connection with our shared humanity or to see how "other people" live.

Instead we need to spend a few days in a village in Zimbabwe. Walk down a street with a Catholic in a Protestant neighborhood in some parts of Ireland. Tune in to the kitchen of a senior citizen in the United States as he/she tries to decide whether to buy essential medicine or essential groceries.

We need to hold a child while the bombs level the town around her. Sit with a wife or a mother as she reads the telegram that begins with, "We regret to inform you..." Visit a tent in Africa filled up with people dying from AIDS.

If humanity has a purpose -- then we are seriously behind schedule. We need to get that All Humankind committee up and running soon. And we need to begin to formulate some really good solutions for those really big problems. There are a lot of logistics to work out…the first one being that multitudes of people won't be able to make it to the All Humankind committee planning meetings at all.

Many didn't have anything to eat today and their children are sick. Some of them are trapped under bombed-out buildings. Thousands are wading through filth or flood waters. Maybe others could make it… if they knew anything about the All Humankind committee other than what their oppressive governments allow them to know or what their religions want them to hear.

And yes, I know we just theoretically fired them all, but if the world’s religious leaders, theologians and elders could pry their glistening eyes from the gold collection plates, the political perks and their personal Supreme Being’s easily bruised ego, we might consider bringing them back onto the planning committee. Humanity is their business, after all. The deep questions surrounding faith and existence are the hallmarks of their professions.

And compassion, unconditional love, inclusion…surely these virtues can triumph over avarice, hypocrisy and exclusion? The future of All Humankind depends upon all of humankind working towards a better way and a brighter future.

All Humankind needs a really good mission statement. We promise to work on it. We are going to try again to get this right: “We are all humans. Hear us AH!”

I hope that you are out there listening, Gort.