Home Planet News

a journal of literature & art

Poetry of Issue 9: Finding Yourself

Finding Yourself

You are standing on the bedrock peak

overlooking a valley below Spencer Mountain

and a warm dry July evening wraps about you,

shelters your shoulders from the upkeep you meant to do,

and the pine trees and aspens sing in their shadows

with the wind that speaks of the high country.

Their song mixes with that of the last hummingbirds

and the blood pumping through your heart,

and the chirp of fox squirrel headed to ground.

The valley is disappearing below you,

and you wait until the distant lights of towns

are replaced over time by the stars above.

It has taken years to arrive at this place

although from the beginning you never left.

And really does it matter?  You breathe deeply

and the world goes on, the wind, the music,

the time it takes to find yourself in this wilderness.

by Jared Smith

Home Planet News