Kimberly Phinney – Exalted Ground

In her poem “Exalted Ground”, award-winning educator and poet Kimberly Phinney blends the boundaries of holiness and the natural world. Her lines show us that the trees whisper psalms and prayers into the wind, that the rugged bodies of the mountains are a Holy Land we can journey into, a wild sort of pilgrimage where we find ourselves closer and closer to God. “It is about the spiritual quest and homecoming one finds in the great outdoors where the land, man, and God all converge,” Kimberly told The Dewdrop.

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Exalted Ground

I walk these mountains—
these bodies,
these large breathing blue souls—
as a small mark
on their weathered skin.

Breathing, too, I learn
this is Holy Land they have
so generously shared
with me—
that this is the Maker’s
first goodness
I did not deserve—
this rarified air.
And still, the land
offers herself up
like a mother
to her child.

This ancient trail
I walk deep into,
between juts and drop-offs,
is a small vein
or artery that pulses
from one major organ
to the next:
the freshwater lake I look into,
a trickling stream in the glen,
a timid doe and her kin.
Yet it holds my steps
and my life
like they matter
to eternity.

And these trees,
the longleaf pines
and species
I do not know how to name
like Adam did,
are all separate but one,
as they sway in infinite song—
a Mass of life
all moving,
all talking,
all beating
as one.
All writing Psalms
with their arms
and leafy tongues
in summer,
in autumn,
in winter,
in spring—
whooshing
like gorgeous vocal cords
making church for God
like David did
in the wilderness.

And here I am—
somehow—
as a parishioner,
a beggar,
a sinner,
a saint,
whispering
my Hallelujahs
and Amens
along with them.

I don’t know
which one I am
to this humming world—
or to God sometimes.
But sinner or saint,
orphan or child,
I will bend my knees
like a good witness
and gasp
and worship
all the same,
for I have tasted
and seen
this exalted
ground,
and it has
looked into
me.

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Read On: Related Posts

• William Stafford’s Looking Across the River
• Gurdjieff and The Two Rivers
• Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
• Pamela Wax – Capricorn Loses His Star
• Barry Casey – Wait Here