Great and deep carrier
of whale bones
I can nearly touch the surface
foaming with unkempt rage
Breaking mountains
into ragged rays,
black and blue, bruised
but head high
facing up to thank some unknown
Poseidon or otherwise
seagulls
Spitting salt so fresh of
earth, I can hardly lean
my body far enough
to be swallowed up into
enormity, into everything bold
and broken
A rocking rhythm
I could serve, yet never sink into
Held unlike comfort but close
to revelation
Gracie Yaconelli is a seventeen-year-old high school senior living in the foothills of the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges in Ashland, Oregon. She is a musician, songwriter, avid trail runner, and parent of two elderly Abyssinian guinea pigs. Gracie currently serves on the national Youth Advisory Council for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. As founder and president of the Ashland High School Writers and Poets club, she leads weekly workshops for aspiring young writers.