READ THIS POEM FROM BOTTOM UP

This simple cathedral of praise. How you made, from the bottom up, Is for you to remember Of Andromeda.* What remains Until you meet the ancient light With your sight you can keep ascending Its final transformation into space. And uphold The horizon's urge to sculpt the sky Puts into relief Your family's mountain land Upon the rising air. In the distance A windward falcon is open high and steady Far above the tallest tree Just beyond your height. You see a young pine lifting its green spire By raising your eyes Out onto the roof deck. You pass through sliding glass doors And up to where the stairway ends. To the top of the penultimate stanza Past the second story, But now you're going the other way, Line by line, to the bottom of the page. A force that usually pulls you down, Of moving against the gravity of habit, While trying not to notice the effort And feel what it's like to climb stairs

*** Andromeda: A constellation named after the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia in Greek mythology who was saved from a sea monster by Perseus, her future husband. After her death, she was placed among the stars. ***

-- Ruth Porritt (b. 1957) --