Important places
Child of Mine, come
as you grow in youth
you will learn
the secret places
the cave behind the waterfall
the arms of the oak
that hold you high
the stars so near
on a desert ledge
...the important places.
And, as with age, you choose
your own way
among the many faces
of a busy world
may you always remember
the path that leads back.
...back to the important places.
Dad to Forest, 1986
//
At 27, I set out to build a time machine,
hoping against hope to cheat the passing years.
I wanted to go back and know my father as a young man.
and so,
40 years after Dad first kayaked through the Grand Canyon,
we returned together,
to that place where he had been young once.
Retracing the lines of a river,
and a poem.
And writing new lines,
in our story together,
our story for now,
our story forever.
I may not have built a time machine,
but I will always have these memories,
and a reminder of the way back,
back to the important places.
Forest