The Rock and the Sky

The Rock and the Sky

Valerie A. Smith

Camp Lebanon, 1987

I thought I carved my soul upon the rock
That rose into the paling vesper sky.
With each new song we hand signed in a round,
I looked into the Holy Spirit’s eye.
The rock dripped black and wet behind a cross,
A wooden beam stuck in the ground beneath,
And silence fell down through our little camp
Except for our devotion singing breath.
I never mined the pastor’s chubby words,
The rolie polies sleeping in the leaves.
I kept watch on the sky, and the Rock
Never took his eyes away from me.
And now when I return to my first love
My spirit rises to the rock above.

---

Valerie A. Smith
Poet & Teacher

Valerie’s first book of poems, Back to Alabama, is forthcoming from Sundress Publications. She has a PhD from Georgia State University and a MA from Kennesaw State University where she currently teaches English. Her poems appear in Radix, Aunt Chloe, Weber, Spectrum, Obsidian, Crosswinds, Dogwood, Solstice, Oyster River Pages, and Wayne Literary Review. Above all, she values spending quality time with her family.

Photography by Ingi Haralds