levelheaded: From the Ground Up

The last line of Actober Reid’s poem is the same as its title. Thus, the sentiment expressed in the poem as a whole, that the speaker support the poem’s you “from the ground up,” is achieved. Whatever happens in between, whatever happens in the pillar of life, let it be framed by a supporting base and a capstone of caring.

Maybe that’s not the right metaphor. The poem is much more delicate than a human-made stone object. In part, its delicacy derives from its lack of punctuation. The short lines and short stanzas seem to float. The inconsistency in the number of lines in each stanza also contributes to the poem’s organic feel, as do the natural images (sky, wave, beach, petal, root, ground) and inconsistent rhyme scheme throughout.

Perhaps more than any other reason though, the poem feels so light because it is so tender. The speaker admits he missed what the universe perceived (“the sky was right about you”) and that he should have dedicated himself to the other sooner (“I should have / said something before”). This is a poem expressing the simple, beautiful desire of one human being to treat another human being well. What a lovely—dare we say, natural—sentiment. Sounds like the kind of relationship that might even help lighten our load.

– The Editors