To a Scholar

To a Scholar

I take no credit.

I am a small bit of mortar

in the edifice that becomes your

living.  Our roads cross

briefly, but your

journey is lengthy.

I am but a sign post.

I am not the path.

You fly.  You sing.  You

work.  You play well.  You

become an aria as your own influence

mingles with the gladness of a choir of strong elders.

Indubitably, you

are more than the sum

of all the intermittent notes that balance you

and that you count

for brief moments--

more than all the arcs that spring

you to spiral

upward and forward

to countless blessed hours.

The long-lived measures

you learn to improvise

after understanding the rules of school--

and I am humbled
and carried forth

by the delivery

of your song.

8 June 2011, edited 28 August 2012