Transcendental Questions

by Amy Belding Brown

Minds happily secured in clouds
the Transcendental men
discuss with gravity the search
for Truth's Ideal -- again.

Here's Emerson, the Concord sage,
and Bronson Alcott, too,
debating Nature's purposes
while Abba stirs the stew.

Here's H. Thoreau and Channing
in conceptual mid-leap
while Lidian and Ellen
rock little ones to sleep.

And here is Margaret Fuller --
that singularity --
whose intellect taps heaven,
while someone else makes tea.

These stars have all inspired us
down generations long
and we like to take their model
and create from it our song.

It sounds downright idyllic.
But the real question for me
is how truly Transcendental can
a married mother be?

August 21, 2002

Copyright © Amy Belding Brown