07 October 2005

Song Upon the Northwind

.
I am that Spirit of the Mountains – that one in the wind.
I race over remote summits, careen around craggy ridges,
and leap into a laughing, breakneck glide
down the snowy slopes.
.
The climbing can turn heavy, arduous, fearful, and slow.
The weather becomes hostile, and night devours the light.
Sir Alpinist will master himself, slay the dragons of dark,
and traverse whole ranges ... yet still covet the Grail.
‘Tis now the time to break out of this cold bivouac, to defy
the Spirit of Gravity, and move on up to a higher realm.
.
Upon the boldest heights, achieving a universe of dawn;
alone and wholly conscious, I am the breath of free motion.
Light in being, ecstatic, dancing, taking to wing and soaring;
I pause – as even winds sometimes do –
on this mountain’s very top;
and I turn my gaze, across the distances, to your summit,
which I’ve always wanted to ascend.
.
-Ross Barlow. (1980s).