look at those trees, will you, look!
sun bursting into dazzling columns
and eucalyptus dripping its stringy
bark, drizzling its medicinal scent

dragonflies stretch stenciled wings
zephyr mambos with wild grasses
sunshine camps out on shoulders
the damp salty air curls our hair

we tumble into the sea’s embrace
to find that this is salvation and
the mountain expanse a cathedral
the ocean’s roar is its Te Deum

for mortal beings: a beautiful place,
voluptuous and wanton and willing
to be caressed, like Life, held close
never understanding the mysteries

our existence, the sea-held mountain,
we love them in our frailty, we grasp
these gifts until we can’t, until
letting go is just as it should be

© 2013, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved, Photo – a Monterey Cypress (Pebble Beach, CA, USA) courtesy of rickpawl’s photostream  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

9 Comments

  4. As soon as you start to read this poem you are wrapped up in it and feel each and every word with all your senses, the power of Nature beyond our limited lifetime. Love it! The photo is very dynamic. I see a constrast between the apparent calmness of the ocean and the branches of a tree that struggles to live like us, human beings. Did you take the picture? Where exactly was it taken?

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    Reply

Thank you!