Author’s note: On the Oregon Coast, about an hour west of where I lived for 25 years, is a wonderful little artist’s village called Cannon Beach. The beach is vast and rambling and features an amazing natural wonder called Haystack Rock. Its name explains its shape, but you must see it to understand its incredible mass.
Just north along the coast lies Ecola State Park, where you will find a beautiful meadow hugging the very top edge of a towering ocean cliff. From this lofty viewpoint you look over the vast ocean, waves crashing below you.
The cliffs, with slivers of white beach at their feet, stretch left and right as far as you can see – broken occasionally by a widened expanse of sand. To the left, as you face the Pacific Ocean, tucked into just such a widened expanse, is the village of Cannon Beach. To your right is Indian Beach, mildly famous as the setting for the film, Point Break, which starred Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze.
This cliff-top meadow’s vista is absolutely breathtaking — soul-stirring. It served as the inspiration for “Hoping To Fly”.
atop a soaring precipice
jutting into the Pacific
observing a seabird suspended in flight
aloft on the sea breeze
billowing up and wafting down the cliff
I’m mesmerized
stretching before me
undulating azure blue
falling away
over earth’s edge
into forever
unfurling below
a white ribbon of sand
fragile
pristine
a breath between eternal sea
and towering rock facades
flanking left and right
in sweeping panorama
a breeze freshens
tosses my hair
I shudder
bracing against vertigo
swept up in a feeling
oh to be un-tethered
weightless
no longer earthbound
my soul
like that seabird
takes wing
soaring skyward
the freedom of feathered wing
over hollow bone
riding the thermals
climbing ever upward
gliding
circling
then
diving earthward
wings tucked
rocketing to the sea
to sail out ‘cross wavecrest
bank left to the boulderd jetty
to flutter back in pull up
glide down silently
to land soft as a fallen leaf
atop the mighty boulders
of Indian Beach Point
beautiful
exhilarating
the true miracle of flight
my heart drifts
back to mother earth
full – intoxicated
rich with this experience
observing a seabird
suspended in flight
riding the Pacfic Ocean cliffs
revision © 2019
DAY 19