we rise and set with the sun on Maui
this day morning has broken
with us atop Haleakala,
a massive dormant volcano
rising 10,000 feet above the sea-level on Maui,
hundreds of us find our way to the view,
and patience takes its time finding us—
conversation, flashlights, and camera electronics
overcome quiet meditation and prayer,
subtlety and receptivity rarely are our strong suits,
above where the sun will come up
Venus is a beacon, and below it Mercury,
I watch them long enough that I see them rise higher,
and then my perception shifts,
and I feel the earth turning into the sun,
slowly, inexorably rotating—I say so,
and my neighbor worries that now
he feels he’ll fear falling off,
the recently full moon to our west keeps an eye on us,
and ghostly shadows what all’s here,
the crater around us dry and brown as Mars,
all 4 rocky inner planets meet somehow here,
I bike down the volcano
and feel its self and size pull me fast down its slopes,
the wind whistling by and through me,
sunset finds us under the palms at the beach,
and the self-same sun drops in glory
through the clouds and into the Pacific,
calling us to turn to the west and south,
and to New Zealand.
by Henry H. Walker
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