IN THE LIGHT

Sometimes you just hit it.
You get to see things past words,
like riding through a living tunnel

of leaves held up by black boles
when a horizontal shaft of yellow 
two feet high shoots through 
from the right so nothing else matters,
and there is nothing to say.

When the world drops off 

and down to a canyon bottom
you pull over to see what happened,
head out on a path so steep 
you have to grab the little trees
rubbed smooth in just the right place 
by everyone else who passed this way.
Hang on tight at the lip of a rock
jutting two hundred feet 
above a carpet and canopy of forest.
Even if your breath would let you,
there is nothing to say.

Words have meaning, but don’t feel a thing,

so when you try for the right perspective,
standing astonished on the edge, a twig

the only thing holding you up, and
the same light that shot the green tunnel
has splashed gold all over the cliff 
facing you from across the canyon.
Suddenly, there is nothing left to do
but sit down and learn how to breathe,
to squeeze your eyes tight shut
and say nothing.

In the middle dark you crawl out

of your tent to take a leak, your breath 

smokes in thirty-two degrees under 

million suns set around a haloed

half-moon bleached white.

You are born again, shivering and still,

your belly full of the galaxy

you have just eaten

and you have no words.

Reviews

[Lorry]

This is quite profound Vol, and it wouldn't be me if I didn't tell you why for.....
This reminds me of where I am now compared to where I was during lockdown. Two times only a few years apart, but separated by light years.
But before I get to that, in the beginning..... 😊
I used to hike and climb, not too far from where I now call home, but back then I was still a city boy, hating city life and took every chance I got to escape to the freedom of nature, me and learning to breathe.
I was never happier than when I was hiking or climbing and feeling that hunger build within me, which I didn't know what it was, but now know as calm and happiness.
Calm, away from distracting noise and happy to be alone with nature and my thoughts, too busy to be thought in the chaos and rush of life, but here they flew.
Now, fast forward to lockdown and whenever things were getting on top of me, I remembered those days and almost like a Mantra, I would close my eyes and see what I saw in nature. One time it would be a trek through a forest, another it would be the quiet solitude of a climb and even just focusing on these moments out of many scenarios, it taught me how to breathe again and calm my thoughts from running away.
I could picture anything with my eyes closed. The sea for instance. Counting between breaths, sensing the spray and almost tasting the scents in the air. Next moment, I would travel to the horizon in my mind, turn round and face myself and see with telescopic clarity, the stresses vanish and it was easy to breathe again.
Now, I live amongst that nature, not far from where I used to climb and hike. It has had its problems too, but that is life and now I think I am on my third life, compared to how I lived in the city.
I hear and feel nature all around me and am now blessed and grateful to know peace and calm.
I have just ran out of words, as I recall eating my own galaxy, and I am reborn!