Best day in 2020: Everything is beautiful

By Phil Cibicki

This poem attempts to describe “my best day in 2020” during a recent experience I had while mountain biking. 

I parked at the trailhead of the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust’s Horse Lake Reserve and headed up the Homestead Trail, eventually arriving at the Apricot Crisp Trail. 

It was here by myself that, despite the insanity of this year, I suddenly felt the presence of my very existence and as a result, everything became beautiful.

Everything is Beautiful

With metal pedals churning

I aim my treaded tire

up the silvery trail of frost below.

Coils of wet smoke

swirl from my flared nostrils

fogging the sunglasses that sit above them.

Here, I sweat pain:

clear, colorless, salty droplets of blood

that soak my entire shirt

and shiver me in this frigid.

But I whirl onward

toward that old arthritic orchard,

its bare branches gnarled with apricot bones.

There, I whip my wheels around

and descend into hip-high straw-colored grass

that sways and waves in the same breeze

sighing through my swirling spokes.

As I gather speed,

freedom and flow fuse,

melting away the fears, angers, and doubts

that dwell in the skull beneath my helmet.

Likewise, the landscape ahead of me

blurs and smudges into a pastel painting

of faded earthen tones:

dying sages, burnt clays, and brittle wheats.

Both the insecurities inside of me

and the sights that surround me

blend together until there is nothing left.

Suddenly everything disappears.

I am no longer mountain biking

and I am no longer burdened.

I am just me,

right here,

right now…

and everything is beautiful.

Phil Cibicki, 35, has lived in the Wenatchee Valley since 1996 where he loves pursuing outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking, and skiing. When he’s not outside, he enjoys writing poetry and working on his undergraduate degree in Psychology from WSU (with plans for a graduate degree in Mental Health Counseling).