“The View from Halfway Down” by Alison Tafel, contributed by Selim Fourati (2025)
This poem may have been written for suicide prevention. It largely surrounds the final moments of the suicidal character Secretariat, who jumped off the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge and realized that he wanted to live but that living was no longer an option because he was already “halfway down.” Here it is:
The View From Halfway Down
The weak breeze whispers nothing
The water screams sublime
His feet shift, teeter-totter
Deep breath, stand back, it’s time
Toes untouch the overpass
Soon he’s water bound
Eyes locked shut but peek to see
The view from halfway down
A little wind, a summer sun
A river rich and regal
A flood of fond endorphins
Brings a calm that knows no equal
You’re flying now
You see things much more clear than from the ground
It’s all okay, it would be
Were you not now halfway down
Thrash to break from gravity
What now could slow the drop
All I’d give for toes to touch
The safety back at top
But this is it, the deed is done
Silence drowns the sound
Before I leaped I should’ve seen
The view from halfway down
I really should’ve thought about
The view from halfway down
I wish I could’ve known about
The view from halfway down
An important thing to note is that the poem goes from the third person, to the second person, to the first person. Secretariat ended up not wanting to go through death, but it’s all spelled out there in the poem.
First, it begins like a narration, almost as if someone is watching or describing the moment from the outside. It creates emotional distance, capturing the numbness or detachment that often precedes major trauma or decisions such as a suicide attempt. It is so peaceful for an event that is so tragic.
Then there’s a “you.” It could be the speaker talking to themselves (as if watching their past self), or it could be a universal address to anyone considering such an act. It pulls the listener in, creating intimacy and immediacy. This is the calm before the storm.
The first-person voice is finally here. It’s confessional, painful, raw. There’s no more abstraction, no more detachment. Just regret and irreversible loss. It’s not about fear of death, it’s about a loss of possibility, the unbearable knowledge that there’s no going back. And what is so strong about this in the show is that the character starts panicking when reading this part of the poem; we understand that it’s regret, because when the character gets these thoughts, it’s too late, he has already jumped.
And it’s such a realistic depiction of the suicidal thoughts during suicide that we found in the case of John Kevin Hines, who attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2000 at the age of 19 but was rescued. Today he’s a motivational speaker and advocate for suicide prevention, but when he was talking about his attempt, he said the first thing he felt when jumping was regret.
I think what this poem adds is a new perspective on loss. We are used to people talking about loss, whether it is anticipated or ambiguous, and that’s what we find in our readings. This poem adds the perspective of the person losing their own life.