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Yearning for Sea Level

by Glenn Currier

___Yearning for Sea Level___

By: Glenn Currier and Garth Hill

On the plains your whitened peaks
gleamed in my mind
pointing to the blueness.
I wondered if yours could be my high --
what surprises might lurk in your whiteness?

But now from this cliff my thoughts tumble --
where did I learn to ache
for the clarity of this mountain top?
And is it true when I see too much of this ice-
crystal world my lungs will burn like paper?

Here stone makes its argument
against the ocean. Ice
invents its own desert in rarified air.
But if the eagle is so wise, why
is he alone on the craggy edge?

I trek for your ethereal Answers,
stars liquid in the milky cloud
of misery I thought I left behind
but here I am lost in your heights.
Your silver veils blur my vision.

The walking gets long in this life,
hard rubber tread, uphill snow and mud.
Only needle pines and a few bushes bristled
with frost accompany the wanderer.
I tell myself things will be easier going downhill.

Am I Moses standing in the cleft
the divine passing me
hand over my eyes?
Dare I try one full breath
of this pure O in my thin I?

My certitudes now dashed on gray granite,
brilliant distractions and stony detritus,
I slip and tumble into soft arms and brown eyes
find in the ordinary chaos of our lives
the full breadth of Wonder
back at sea level.

11/16/2009

Author's Note: From its inception this poem was a collaboration between me and Garth Hill. It has been a pleasure and a learning experience interacting with Garth about poetry in general and this poem in particular.

Posted on 11/16/2009
Copyright © 2024 Glenn Currier

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by George Hoerner on 11/16/09 at 07:21 PM

Good write guys! The eagle soars to these heights because he is king there and shares his domain only with those willing to reach for the sky.

Posted by Gregory O'Neill on 11/16/09 at 07:47 PM

Love this, guys! And the final stanza catches us, returns us, comforts us. Wonderful write. Thanks.

Posted by Charlie Morgan on 11/17/09 at 05:27 PM

...me is so foolish to think this is a great job. i am glad for the explan0...i can see "you" [each you] in the stanzas...again, great job, great flow. ya'lls minds're empty now, right?

Posted by Jean Mollett on 11/19/09 at 04:41 AM

Hi Glenn, Great write. This might even make a good book too. The ocean, mountains, the way you describe it.

Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 11/19/09 at 08:12 PM

The mountains have their own grandeur and challenges. You've given a philosoher poet's keen perspective.

Posted by Philip F De Pinto on 01/07/10 at 01:07 PM

reading this supreme collaboration weaved together so, I am at a loss to locate the seam, sparks so in my eyes that it ignites the chandelier in the brain, the sudden bursting light of which, causes all the dusky critters in my mind to scurry for darker havens.

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