Every Valley Shall Be Exalted

Stop! Stop the car!

I stepped out, wrapped my coat against the evening wind
and looked at the distant, wide lake in the midst of a wild valley bed
and the mountain range on my left laid its long arm along side
dangling rocky fingers in the distant ocean

a frog in the lake backed into soft silt
'til only his eye remained to watch the snake swim by
a turtle drifted still and lazy on the surface
but snapped up a foolish fly that crawled down the rushes
and a dragonfly glinted on long tendril leaves of cat tails
while a rabbit nipped the heels of her slowest kit
as the family loped home under the shelter of the heath
and the fox's nose twitched and then raised its face to the sky
and a caribou lifted its antlered head chewing with slow circular motions
gazing across the bushes, up to the sky
and the tawny cougar watched and cleaned its paw in the gleaming

The trees rose out of the bushes
crowding together like women at the well
they crowd closer and closer
'til they cover the hills
like an evening promenade in an ancient village piazza
lift and lower their branches to the darkening sky
as the light shifts to purple
the mountain range, its monstrous left arm
embracing the valley, reaching down toward the ocean
rests its wrist at sand's edge
and dangles its rocky fingers in the sily enormity of salt water
and the moonlight

the just rising moon shone long like a flashlight on the great water
and I followed the light up to the infinite sky
the infinite mystery, and like an arrow
the archer shot me back home, back
into heart and lung and I gasped
in tears I gasped
wrapped my arms around the tiny being that I am
then raised them in salutation to the day
the milky way, the black planet.
Raised them in salutation to infinite intertwining existence.