Touchstones

They are called touchstones.

Held in your hand in the heat and thunder
of those moments that will make you or break you,
when good men lose their wits
and look to those who can still breath slowly
and keep a misty world clear.

They say that touchstones
ground you to the place you come from,
remind you what you are,
and who you are made of.
They let you know how you can place all of that
quietly and soundly
into the moments that count.

And that the people who have touchstones
are the ones able to say,
"You are with me, or against me ...
and this endeavor
will be the better for it,
either way."

When I held your hand last night,
I knew that you were our touchstone.

IJC
Saskatchewan, February 2004

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