Good Stock
Posted on | October 15, 2009 | No Comments
I recently received an inquiry from Pamela Hanson, who asked if I knew of a poem that could be read at a memorial service for her father, Roland Hanson, who was, among other things, a woodworker. Not finding one in my files I was led to give voice to these words.
Good stock cut straight with figure difficult, close grain complex, resistant to the blade, Negotiates a plane, a curve, with hands that bring it docile to a vision – wood made useful far beyond its death with beauty hidden in its heart. The tools are laid aside, their work fulfilled. The wood now burnished, burning with the craftsman’s soul, shines forth in praise and gratitude.
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William J. Everett
In my teaching career I authored eight books and numerous articles in social ethics and religion. After over thirty years of academic work — in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as in the United States — I wanted to turn my hand to a poetically written novel to probe the issues of ecological and human reconciliation.
When I am not writing, I create furniture for worship settings. For more about my work, go to www.WisdomsTable.net, where you will also find galleries of artwork by my wife Sylvia, whose ancestors were the original inspiration for Red Clay, Blood River. READ MORE...
Red Clay Blood River
Red Clay, Blood River is a story told by Earth about two brothers from Germany and an enslaved South African woman whose lives bind together America’s “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s simultaneous “Great Trek” of 1838.