Balancing Rock – a poem by Eva Alter

Balancing Rock

I find God   every time I go hiking
sometimes he’s        waiting for me at the          peak

sometimes          he whistles    between Longleaf Pines
sometimes     he      meets me       at a critical

juncture          last weekend       in the wake of our
rupture     two months out    still reeling   I drove

to Hanging Rock       to shake my mind loose      first
mile       straight up a stone staircase   was brutal

in the midst of       deciding whether to
give up    my footsteps    sunk into a groove

and I was flying      Falcon’s wings    took me high
above present circumstance    soon cresting

the thunderstorm-tinged horizon     I could 
think again      rhythmed temperate terrain

brought me back to my body   fixed footstep
cadence       rewiring     rebuilding    systems

of self    I found God     on Balancing Rock
we sat        shoulders touching       I wrote      he was

still    we sat and watched the storm move     across
rolling Piedmont hills         miles away from us

after an hour        I stood up     breath calm
and patterned            God         and I parted    I pulsed

my descent       to the sound of my footsteps     one
foot after the other      back to myself

Eva Alter is a poet and information professional whose work explores memory and myth through hybrid and procedural forms. Her work is published or forthcoming in Maudlin House, Don’t Submit, scaffold literary journal, wildscape. literary journal, and elsewhere. She can be found @eva_alter_poet on Twitter, @eva.alter.poet on Instagram, and @evaalterpoet.bsky.social.