Sublime

In our rocky mountain vistas

and certain landscape

paintings

Our imaginings are captured

sometimes clear and ordered

in others stormy patterns

hiding then revealing

dark and jagged forms

almost hearing the hawk's

invisible circling call

Imagining ourselves on

precipitous mountain paths

blown by shifting icy winds

vertigo and dark crevices

fearsome obstacles foreshadowing

impending loss     then

most suddenly we return

to our observation places

warmth safety comfort

as before

our imagined landscape fears

now engulfed transformed

within a joyous

pervading light

a jolting new experience

mysteriously named by some

as the sublime

The word a gentle quiet

merging

of beauty and twin terrors

of fear and loss

Might we then find

in this our landscape viewing

a rehearsal

for life's dark confrontations

and on a promising day

enfold transmute and

with ecstatic labor

discover true beginnings

new births

reaching this time

to a friend

we know and name

Our Sublime