From 29,000-ft.

Flying due north from
    Baja to Seattle,
a band of orange-red light
    stretched  across
the extended horizon
    outside my window
as the sky above became night.

The sun seemed to
    ignite the base of
occasional clouds until
    they burned red
        as if the mists were
        sleeping on an king-sized
        bed of hot coals.
Reflected by a restless ocean,
    the sky formed a rainbow of
    blues from black to almost white.

Starlight, star bright,
the first star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might
have this wish I wish tonight.

Even though the first star I saw
    in the near blackness was
    likely the planet Venus and
    even though I was a grown-up,
    I made a wish.

I wished that our fertile Earth
    would always paint
    such wonderful sunsets.

Sunset from the level of the Pacific Ocean
by Jeter Skeet

Flowing

I am the St. Johns River.
Mother Earth gives me life,
nourishes me with streams and warm springs.

As I flow, I feel
power as my waters brush
against Cyprus knobs and piers,
cormorants and anhingas who pierce
my waters as they dive to feed,
fish who tickle me as they swim
in my currents.

As I flow, I listen to
motor boats rushing upstream and down,
mating calls of herons, osprey, and more,
rains that sustain me.

As I flow, I smell
flowers and trees,
pheromones,
the life that surrounds me.

As I flow, I watch
birds who fly with a freedom
I’ll never know,
my currents play with reflections—
such beauty.
and I watch you watching me.

I am the St. Johns River.
I flow, then merge with my own kind
in a vast sea of togetherness.

reflection in a quiet section of river
by Jeter Skeet