I walked a labyrinth into the new year
A painted canvas maze, spread upon the floor of a local church
The sanctuary heavy with incense, stirred by unfamiliar bells
Peopled with silent swaying forms, upright and wavering as a forest of kelp
Tracing the tight turns and the long sweeping turns with careful feet
I found myself balanced on the great humped back of an albatross
And then, as I moved deeper into the maze, translated into the albatross itself
Infiltrated with that power and that surrender to the gales of life
So the albatross rides above the wind-clipped waves of the southern ocean
Back and forth forever, running down the wind and then turning to rise
High and fast in the frigid, dizzy air that spins as the earth spins, unceasing
No other flight so direct, so indirect, contending with such great force, so effortless
Thousands of miles in one trip, millions of miles in its long, looping life
Always racing away and then climbing toward home again
The albatross, creature and master of the vast invisible
Carried me into the year, and left me with my feet strangely still, on dry land