The Hidden Largest Poem by Renee Podunovich

The largest mountain range is under the Atlantic Ocean.
It forms one arm connected to oceanic ridges
in every ocean,
creating the longest mountain range in the world,
the deepest canyons,
the cause of Pangaea —
80 million years
continents still drifting, friction,
unstable, plate tectonics, propagating
velocities, seismic migration.
Portions with enough elevation extend above the sea.
To navigate these, use a bearing compass,
a nautical almanac and align
with the magnetic poles and the stars.
Know that surface water bulges outward and inward
mimicking the rough terrain below
(but this is too small to be seen
without measuring the altitude above the water
from a satellite) . Forget
your eyes altogether. The mind can't swim.

Discard the logical tools for observing surfaces.
As ocean levels rise, as land slips beneath,
and what was solid dissolves,
learn to trace voice and movement —
how the heavy sound of your tears and longings,
and the buoyant notes of your love songs
all bounce easily off the edges of the world
submerged, returning and reverberating,
measuring the distance between self
and the connection to everything else.

Below what the eye can automatically define
are immense spaces;
where the aquatic heart, the untamed self,
and everything truly substantial
dance weightless
underwater.

from 'Illustrious for Brief Moment', Finishing Line Press,2021