.
The Comings and Goings of Heaven and Earth
Clouds’ movement in the sky, the sight of birds,
phenomena that draw an upward glance,
may sometimes leave us at a loss for words,
uncertain if we’ll get another chance.
Yet, these are givens in the firmament,
and though not firmly underfoot, they pass
as steadfastly as time that we have spent
trailing old earth behind, wearing down grass.
The ground beneath our feet, like solid air,
is filled with hidden insects as the sky,
our ways put on repeat, comprising where
we’ve been, looking ahead, wondering why
all trails seemed destined to a single place,
an ending that’s most difficult to face.
.
.
David L. Williams is recently retired from 34 years teaching high school English in Lincoln, Nebraska, his primary residence since he went to college there in the 80s. He has been published in Autumn Sky Daily Poetry, Rat’s Ass Review, Masque & Spectacle, Live Nude Poetry, Sublunary Review, and Provenance Journal. More about David and his poetry at his webpage, http://classwords.com.
I really like what you’ve done with the imagery of the sky and land, showing how they are in some ways almost mirroring each other.
David, our final destination as a human is difficult for us to face as our thoughts go from the cerebral to the eternal as you vividly remind us.
It’s something of line break mastery to give us “we’ve been looking ahead wondering why” as an additional reading in the middle of a different sentance. This is a very thoughtful poem.
A large theme for a sonnet, David, but you develop it nicely, quatrain by quatrain. And you observe the turn from octave into sestet with the striking fusion of heaven and earth into “solid air.” Then you truthfully describe the destination point of the comings and goings in the couplet as an “ending that’s most difficult to face.” That seems to look back at the upward glance of your second line, one that involves speaker and reader in a “loss for words.” The whole poem thus appears both abstract and concrete. You manage well that large theme outlined in the title!
This finely crafted sonnet contemplates the quiet marvels of the natural world—clouds, birds, trails—and uses them as metaphors for the human condition: our longing, our uncertainty, and the inevitable passage of time. The poem’s formal restraint, with its steady rhyme and meter, contrasts beautifully with its meditative tone, evoking a sense of both groundedness and existential drift. Phrases like “the ground beneath our feet, like solid air” blur the boundary between what we trust and what remains elusive. In the final couplet, the poem leads us to a stark but graceful recognition of mortality—“an ending that’s most difficult to face”—closing the reflection with quiet emotional weight. Subtle, elegant, and hauntingly resonant.
Thank you , David, for it!
We have so much in common under the sun, and will have so much more in common when the thread’s snipped.
Thanks for the philosophical read, David.
I believe this fine sonnet subtly welds life, its evanescence, and death. There’s a heaven above and there’s a heaven underneath it; each experienced by mankind and each leading to each. It’s all interconnected and the repetition of “events” weave this life we live. A beautiful and refreshing poem, David. I really enjoyed it.
Wow! That was a lot to digest. Thanks for the invitation.
No doubt the wide skies and rampaging storms of Nebraska served to inspire this poem. It is a heartfelt meditation that deftly weaves the skies, the earth, and the biosphere into its metaphor.