Guadalupe Salgado Partida – Nearing Heaven

Guadalupe Salgado Partida, with her poem “Nearing Heaven”, tilts our eyes skyward, just as the eyes of the poem’s narrator when she asks her father about God. This poignant piece studies the way humanity has closed the distances, while pondering, not without tension, how much room there is in the firmament for spirituality. Guadalupe explained to The Dewdrop, “I explore the relationship between humans and nature. Through the use of the question, I wish to prompt the reader to reflect on their relationship to nature.”

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Nearing Heaven

they gave us wings, and now we can all fly
on commercial flights, take day-long trips
to destinations that used to be called "far off"
...
It has rained for a week, and the Santa Ana winds have turned
the mild L.A evening into a chilly and sweater-worthy night. As we sit
on the porch, observing the planes on their trajectory to L.A.X, I lean
over and ask my father about God; he points at the sky, but not at himself
–and I wondered how much of heaven could be there for us,
within that sky and beyond it