I'd like to thank the Academy

[Rhett Hudson/Chris Weaver]

and the outgoing OSLIST Poet Laureate, and my wife Rhett,
and the Open Space Subcommittee Responsible for Enforcing Principles,
and all the splendid poets, and especially the Open Space
in which poems are conceived and into which they are born.

I can't resist the poet's cardinal sin of explaining the poem.  Last month I
caught up with Birgitt Williams during the lunch-laden 3rd session of an OS
in Hendersonville, NC, down the road from where I live.  She told me about
her step off the dock, when she quit her "good" job (with four children to
support) to become an OS facilitator, against the advice of some who said it
couldn't be done.  I was enheartened and moved by the tale of her calling
and her risk, especially since I'm now engaged in the too-complicated
process of quitting my own too-complicated job.

I hadn't planned to submit a poem, but in the week before the (fluctuating)
deadline, I fell in love with this listserv.  So, truly, my poem is an ode
to OSLIST.  Handing eachother deeper trust, like sandwiches, is exactly what
it's like to browse through y'all's emails each evening after I put my
3-year-old son to bed.  Good sandwiches, too.

I will end with a CALL and three quotes.  The call:  As the incoming OSLIST
P.L., I invite you to keep writing and sending poetry, and to respond to
poems with poems, in any form.  Florian Fischer's entry the other day about
what happens overnight is a lovely poem.  Let us keep enriching the
intuitive mind:

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful
servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant but has
forgotten the gift."  -Einstein

"Partnering with life, working with its cohering motions, requires that we
take life's direction seriously.  Life moves toward wholeness.  This
direction cannot be ignored or taken lightly.  People do not respond for
long to small and self-centered purposes or to self-aggrandizing work.  Too
many organizations ask us to engage in hollow work, to be enthusiastic about
small-minded visions, to commit ourselves to selfish purposes, to engage our
energy in competitive drives.  Those who offer us this petty work hope that
life's great motions are somehow absent from us.
   "When we respond with disgust, when we withdraw our energy from such
endeavors, it is a sign of our commitment to life and to each other.  Like
all life, we can pursue a direction only toward wholeness...."  -Wheatley &
Kellner-Rogers, from A Simpler Way

And, from the same source as the Hopi Elder entry from Sharon Quarrington:
"There is a river flowing very fast now.  It is so great and swift that
there are those who will be afraid.  They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.
    "Know the river has a destination.  The Elders said we must let go of
the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our
heads above water.
    "And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate."

Happy Swimming!  -Chris Weaver


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