She is Deep

There is a canyon hidden under the waters of our Bay—

The marine geologists say it is rival of the Grand Canyon;

in fact, it is the largest & deepest submarine canyon, it is thought,

of any

off North America’s coasts,

beginning barely three-quarters of a mile offshore at its midpoint Moss Landing,

its steep walls plunge

& plunge

& plunge again,

deep it goes

into a sparse, cold, silent, utterly lightless world,

plunging finally over two miles deep, the Monterey Submarine Canyon

stretches out to fifty miles & more into the vast abyssal world

of the Pacific.

Now I know why Goddess of this place has such depth.

This is no mere Postmodern empty figure of speech—

Her being is rooted in those lightless depths, drawing Her power

from darkness,

Her root essence rising through fathoms of the Bay,

rising through the upwelling of annual current of nutrient riches,

rising in all Her glory

& bountiful in all Her diversity,

Her ever living presence at play in dolphin & porpoise, whale & seal;

She is fruitful with fish, mollusc & crustacean, the absolutely essential

microscopic plankton,

with thriving forests of giant kelp, the largest of any kelp in the world;

She is evident even on wave-punished rocks, how they’re covered

with algae, barnacle, mussel, limpet, anemone & sea palm;

She flies the Bay with tern & gull, pelican & cormorant,

& runs the tide shores with sandpiper & plover;

She offers habitat to duck, egret & heron & the wintering

monarch;

She is lavish with dunes, beaches, tide pools, mudflats, sloughs,

headlands & cliffs,

& outcroppings of abandonment;

She adorns Herself in the gold of the Sun,

or veils Her body head to toe in layered garments of fog;

& Her fair climate is enjoyed by all—Mediterranean mild—,

& Her breath extends to coastal mountains of madrone,

redwood, pine, oak & fir, & the higher chaparral peaks.

But the virgin maiden of laughter & play has had to discover

Her own depths—

Saturn, God of time,

pulls Her sunny disposition into the lightless deep,

pulls Her down into the fertile creativity of the primordial.

—If we would only contemplate that, attempt to comprehend that,

we would participate in the rebirth of a living land—

For She rises anew through Her body of the Bay,

we who are witness to such a Vision—

A virgin Goddess transformed by late-20th Century

experience.

We who are witness,

through us She has discovered Herself anew.

If we would only recognize Her fully & give Her a voice,

She would go forth to all the world, revealing Herself

as Psyche Divine born of this Bay, this land & time,

born to rise & confront the new God of our world,

Technos,

today’s dominant Superpower, how it comes looming

from northward Silicon Valley, just over the dark ridges

of mountain.

It is here, in The Cruz, if we would only celebrate

Her living presence, that Technos must face & acknowledge

the new living Light of Her

rising from the deep canyon body of our Bay.

August 1998