I Marvel

By: Kayla Penhasi

Posted on June 1, 2024

Cover Image Title: Pansy

Cover Image by: C. Sala

Classification: Photography

Size: 3023 pixels X 3892 pixels

Location: Ottawa, Canada

Year: 2024

Look up, it’s ethereal,

The shadows that shimmer 

Against various hues of light.

The blanket of the stratosphere,

The celestial sphere we named clouds.

Perhaps it is the rose-colored lenses that rest atop my nose bridge 

The acoustics of air that fill my ears, like water in the pool.

Forgive me, if the tones of the grass force my legs to stop, so my eyes can see…

The view enlarges my pupils in sheer admiration.

I marvel.

Look up, it’s paradisiacal,

Your eyes are jewels that reflect the Earth in front of you.

The luminescence of the cosmos

Contrasts against the landscape of the sphere on which we stand;

My interstice of sight softens as I observe the sun’s departure. 

It is all temporary, as I will gaze at its rise in the day to follow,

The bittersweet serenity that we named a sunset.

Perhaps it is the roseate that lies deep within my heart and soul…

Yet I believe the sunset ties all our soul together.

Forgive me, if the camera lens I use does not mirror the one in my eyes.

I suppose the beauty of the palette of the skies is too great, 

To appear elsewhere than in the human eye.

I marvel. 

Now look below, it is dear,

Down and around your old shoes.The soles that carry your memory,

Against the lush emerald blades.

The blanket of our dear planet,

The bouquets yet to be picked,

The symbols of love and life 

And loss on Earth which we named flowers.

Maybe I am unable to stop dreaming of the dark, so I prefer the light.

Perhaps when I am conscious, I live life through books, music, photographs, and film.

Perhaps the way humans live and breathe,

How the trees sway with the wind,

How the showerbows form,

Is romantic in itself.

I marvel.

And perhaps that is the reason I look up – 

I look up at the clouds,

I admire how soft they appear.

I smile, thinking of the young children

Who wish to reach the clouds; 

The young child I used to be that wished for the same. 

The age long before worries fill their mind,

Before they think about who they are going to be. 

I look up at the sunset,

I admire how angelic they appear.

I smile, thinking of how eight billion 

Who have seen this view at some point;

Many of which are watching the same colors dance across the sky 

Alongside myself at the same point in time. 

And those who do not watch with me,

Will watch with others who they love.

I marvel.

And I even when I look down,

Down at the flowers beside my shoes,

I admire the life that fills them.

And I smile once again,

Thinking of how these flowers that I walk upon 

Will be picked and sent to loved ones,

Different people with different stories…

Flowers for first-time love encounters,

Flowers for two lives tied for eternity,

And flowers for the lives of a story’s end. 

And perhaps, if those eight billion would all look up,

They would recognize the ethereal,

The paradisaical,

The life so dear to them. 

And perhaps, they would no longer take it for granted. 

Description:

This poem is about the type of person who recognizes the beauty of the Earth and beyond. They are able to find the beauty in everything, and often romanticize it. A person who is inspired by existence – an artist. This person finds winsomeness in the world in the same way poets, painters, photographers, and musicians find beauty and inspiration in the ordinary scenes of life.

[The End]