A Meditation on Form

Papery blossom 

in a rock sea—

or is it the sea itself 

shrunk to a pool

on an ancient map?

Today, the sky burns

so we turn up-trail

toward boulders 

where lichen

unfurls, slow-tells

the future of the

before-us forest 

as it builds a self 

from warming air. 

Over compressed

rock layers, ancient

wave impressions, 

the lichen is

a cyan prayer—

form and breath

interweaving, the

we supplicating we

brief as sea-foam 

over red sandstone.

Radha Marcum’s work is rooted in ecological, social, and personal landscapes of the American West. Read more.


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How Luminous the World Is

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Primordial Heart