To an Unsung Hero

Jay OwenPoetry by Hazel Henderson

What fortunate people
We who grew up under her wing!
This is true courage:
To toil each day for others.
This is true valor:
To keep faith with the future,
Without compensation or recognition.
Caring and sharing, honoring Nature
Are de-valued in narrow economics,
While guns, tanks and robots are paraded.
Yet the “love economies” of all the world’s Dorothys
Foster life and reign supreme in the cosmic accounts.
The world will progress as it recognizes its Dorothys
Until, one day, we shall all see more clearly
The real heroes,
And follow their leadership into a brighter future.

Hazel Henderson, loving daughter — in gratitude
Barley, Hertfordshire, England
October 9, 1995

See Hazel Henderson, Paradigms in Progress (1991, 1995), pp. 274