The Source

One of the benefits
Of being snowed in
During a recent snowstorm
Was having the chance
To see a rerun of “The Miracle Worker”
On HBO
This is one
That always makes me tear-up
So perfect are the performances
Of Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft
Depicting the lives of Helen Keller
And her devoted teacher Anne Sullivan Macy
If you haven’t seen this one
You really must make it your business
And be sure to have
A box of Kleenex nearby
Handy in case you also cry
For what was it like for Helen
To have been so deeply locked up
A prisoner inside her own brain
Unable to make sense of her world
Doomed to a lifetime of dependency
and institutionalization
when, through the untiring work of her dear teacher
To be rescued, saved
Called back to life
Through loving devotion
Able to rise and breathe
Freed at last from her private hell
Summoned back to life
Like Lazarus,
Yes, just like Lazarus
Like the 40 Peruvian miners
Who were buried alive
In a Peruvian coal mine
Given up for dead
Only to be brought back
Back to life
Back to the bright sunshine of liberation
and renewed hope
a miracle truly
yet I could only wonder
What was the source
The source that saved them all
That enabled them
To overcome every obstacle
Every road block
Every defeat
Perhaps, it was a miracle
How else to explain it
For Helen to rediscover life
From water
Water from a well
To be able to connect
At long last
A word with its object
And to understand
That every object
is connected to a word
and to know
to finally be able to know
that both words and objects
are what the world is made of
mother
father
teacher
water
dirt
tree
Helen
She knows!
She knows!
The windows of her mind
Thrown wide open at last
Open to the source
The true source
The one source
The source
That made us all
For in the beginning
Was the word
And the word
Was with God
And God was
in the word
amen
amen
and again
I say
amen

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011