The Line Across The Horizon
by Jake Steimle
Brighman Young University
Jake Steimle is a student at Brigham Young University. He is applying to the Advertising program in the Fall, and will graduate in 2025. He has been attempting to write stories since he was a child, though he’s not sure he’s ever had much of a talent for it. It's more of something he loves.
The Line Across The Horizon
The line across the horizon
Marks the front lines of a war
A battle that has lasted since
The beginning of the earth
For the longest time
I thought the land had the strong advantage
With mountains and hills holding ground against the sky
Constantly pushing back against its forces
The rivers, lakes, and oceans
Take every advantage the sky has
And seemed to turn it back on them
Reflecting the light and stealing its glory
Oh was I ever wrong
Battles can’t be boiled down so brashly, ignorantly
Until one sees both perspectives
For the longest time
I saw things upside down
With the Earth face up, hiding the sky beneath
But then I grabbed the world in my hands
Placed it on the top of my thumb
And flicked it into the air
This time
The earth’s face landed down
And the sky side was up
In plain view
What I once saw as bland
Now catches my breath
Where I used to see only what the land offers
Now I see what the big sky has in store
What the sky lacks in infantry
It makes up for its air power
The winds grind up the earth sending it into the air
The evidence of the battle in the blood-reds of the sunset
Not only that
But the clouds sprawl across the sky
Their contrast against the brilliant cool blues
The evidence of a highly disciplined legion
One can’t fail to mention
The firepower of the sky’s storms
With canons of lightning and thunder
Machine guns of rain and sleet
There’s the sun, moon, and stars
The commanding officers of the sky’s force
Unparalleled in their leadership
Outmaneuvering the land at every clash
From this perspective
One might obviously say that the sky will win this war
But maybe that’s making things too simplistic once again
A problem we often have when managing perspectives.
I grabbed the world in my hand once more
And flicked it up again
After balancing it on my thumb
And the sharp, sweet sound of its rotation
Stayed in my ears until it landed
This time
Not on its head
Or on its tail
But balanced somewhere in between
From this angle, it appears
The land and the sky
Are not at war
But that they’re dancing
Sometimes one leads, and sometimes the other
The line across the horizon, the love that holds them together.
Interview with the Author
What pieces inspired you to start writing poetry?
Many of Billy Collins' poems have inspired me to write poetry. He has such a fun playful style that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is also masterful in its grip of language and imagery. It always evoked strong emotions when I read it. Other than sporadically throughout highschool, I have only been exposed to a lot of poetry recently, and so I haven't discovered much.
What theme do you find yourself constantly writing about in your works?
I don't know if I have any one central theme I find myself continually writing about because there is so much that fascinates me about life. What I love about poetry is that it allows me to express, through the medium of words and by technique of imagery and metaphor, feelings and ideas that are hard to express otherwise. It brings with it an emotional release. I do, however, find myself using imagery from astronomy a lot, because it fascinates me.
What do you think are important elements in thought provoking poems?
I think that an important element in a thought provoking is the use of metaphor in general. Not necessarily saying that one thing is another thing as a simple line in a poem, but taking a thought or feeling that you have and expressing it by writing about something else entirely. For instance, one time I wrote a poem about the a relationship I had by comparing the whole thing to the formation of a solar system.
What role do you think poetry has on our society today?
I don't know if poetry plays a role in society, nor does it need to. That's part of what makes it great: one, that it's so hard to define, and two, that it can have a completely different personal function or meaning to one person than it does for another.