“Over the place where Long’s Peak and its slightly less imposing companions stand in lofty isolation and invite the summer tourist to their cool retreats, the waves of an open sea once rolled and its tide as ebbed and flowed, unhindered by rock or shoal.” (NPS.gov)
Meadows swim: yellow, periwinkle, and green
framing curlicues of snaking streams
washed down from the mineraled mountain
I touch an icy, bubbling flow and salts eroded from ancient glacial slabs
coat my finger connecting me to those upswept ocean floors
The sea is now the sky, tides of air directing the clouds like swells
reflections wafting through the horseshoe streams
bringing clouds back to earth
Mirrors interrupted rhythmically by waving grasses until
it all feels
like an ancient weaving
like time turned over
like I have always walked here
Love starting with the NPS.gov quote. It grounds the poem in meaning, but it also reads like those songs that have a person talking before the music begins and that brings it into the real world in a really effective way.
I really love the imagery and flow of this whole poem. You’ve done a really good job with it! I actually think playing with punctuation could help this poem. I often do puncuation-free poems, but I’d be interested to see how including punctuation impacts the flow of this one.
Flow is what comes to mind as I read your poem. The line I absolutely loved is “The sea is now the sky, tides of air/ directing the clouds like swells”… The beauty of an upside down perspective. So much to learn and enjoy in this. Thank you for sharing this poem.