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Open Doors
by Glenn CurrierAs I read the pages
of his life
I discovered him in the fields.
Where he learned to play hardball
to peel his ears
for truth and fiction
in the words
hurled by the many.
The wide fields.
The farmland of his ancestors
in the central valley
of his first thin roots.
The fields where the seeds of his mind
fertile in classrooms
across the seas
after the bomb
always harvesting
always planting.
I found him
in his bowtied twinkly-eyed
self-possessed presence
in the early days
of my own planting.
His practical genius
and sweat
are woven into the history
of me and my fellows
and countless citizens
who have walked through the open doors.
12/01/2011 Author's Note: Dedicated to Bill Jason Priest, Community College Pioneer (see the book by that title by Kathleen Krebbs Whitson) and founding chancellor of the Dallas County Community College District where I taught for 35 years.
Posted on 12/01/2011
Copyright © 2025 Glenn Currier
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Gabriel Ricard on 12/01/11 at 04:04 PM I love that closer. It sums up a fine, powerful tribute. |
| Posted by Lori Blair on 12/14/11 at 11:40 PM Beautiful tribute indeed! A soul truly worthy of such a marvelous piece of work..Thank you! |
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