Griffith Park Observatory Poem by Laurence Overmire

You can see it from
Some great distance
Far below
Looking up

A majestic dome
Commanding the promontory
High above the city
Gleaming white in the sun
Like a great robed prophet
Delivering truths to an
Unknowing world

You decide to make the journey
Up the winding hillside
Up, up, up
The anticipation mounting
But the cars begin to pile up
Bumper to bumper
Slowing your once steady advance
To a crawl
And the top, so close, seems
Oh so far
Away

Finally, you arrive
A parking lot chocked full of
People and steel, frustration and fumes
Car after car looking for that proverbial
Space

If only you weren't tied to this
Particular orbit, circling endlessly
The gravity of that building holding you
At arm's length, but no further
Till finally, you give up
Make your way back down the hill
From whence you came

Some other day perhaps
You'll come back and try again
And once again you'll be
Defeated

The quest is ongoing
The night forever young
And someday if you're lucky
You, too, may see the stars.

~ Laurence Overmire

(Previously published in Gone Hollywood, Indelible Mark Publishing,2011)