Poetry, Nature, Spirituality
The Seagull Roller Coaster
Riding and diving the currents of transcendence
The seagulls know when to jump in.
Four or five at a time, they dive from the rocks into the low-lying eddies sucking at the edge of the vortex on the sea.
Screaming and gliding, they rise through that warm breath of air without beating a wing, all the way to the top, to where the pines stubble the silhouetted chin of granite at the edge of the sky.
The cacophony of wind kisses them just “so.” They know when the inhale changes over to a gusty release into the night-chilled air.
One moment they are suctioned up, the sun in their eyes, and in the next they know that it is time to fly out from the press and digress back from transcendence to join the flock, which is moored in the rocks, watching the birds in the sky.
The beginnings of this poem came to me over a year ago, while I was sitting on the beach of Fox Island, Alaska, watching the seagulls jump into an updraft of warm air which carried them all the way up to the top of the mountain and then set them free.
I just couldn’t help but think how their journey paralleled the journey of the circle of life. There is so much to learn from nature. We just need to take the time to look.
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).
Thank you for reading. I hope that you enjoyed my photo and musings.
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Photos, poem and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.
