Poetry, Photography

Conceptions of Perspective

A slice of heaven

Like ghostly apparitions, the sliced peaks, which, from the ground, normally appear as jagged teeth biting into the sky, drift into a sea of fog, their granite bases invisible.

From sea level, you would not see them.

But from thirty-thousand feet up, they prick the floor of the heavens.

Did the ancients have any conception of this perspective?

Is this how the gods came to be?

Mythical beings inhabiting an unseeable world?

On our flight home from Alaska, I found myself awestruck at the beauty of the Rocky Mountains floating up above the level of the clouds. So often, we look up to the mountains and never see the peaks because the moisture tends to gather right over them. It was such an unusual perspective to see the peaks and not be able to see the ground beneath them.

I’ve been consciously trying to collect “droplets of awe” of late. And this was one of those nectar-filled moments.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.