The Dinner Party Ending with Ragtime
Poem by Kim Stafford, written after a Stewardship Conversation with SAGE
This is the oldest thing we do: hunting and gathering
roots, tools, notions, and songs we chant to sustain the children.
How are the children? we say. And the answer is The children
need us to save the seed corn, stare hard at the time horizon,
build a space where we can settle our strife, and make beautiful
decisions in keeping with the little ones’ best chance.
So we listen to the future, we nourish the smallest
tributaries to the river we will braid with kind words,
generous listening, ecstatic dancing, taming the wild
technology creature we bore to be an instrument
for human thriving, learning to play the tune
as slowly as it was meant to be.
We are emissaries from the future, come back
to lay a foundation for the world we want to be.
So may every meeting begin with gracious welcome
and end with laughter and a song.