FOR EVA (Reflections of Mt. McKinley) 1972

Crusting winter tears

Soft as Eiderdown

Hard as iceaxe steel

Flew wind-borne at my face

As I grinned

Out of the tent 

Into the burning fire of dawn.

For at least an hour

My thoughts had flown

About the peaks

And down our col

To shout And play

With whines of joy

Among our shelter shrouds.

Inside, the other beard

Still drugged with chloral hydrate sleep

Lay still and unaware

Of my silent solo

Ascent of the day’s

Yet unbegun Adventure.

It snorted once, then was still.

High above,

The towering mass

Of ice and rock Lay

fixed with an enormity

That labored the feeble

Recall of

My recent imagination.

A caress of zephyr from the peak

Smelt, I sensed, like

A moist but fragrant

Lover’s kiss.

And then I was alone

Gasping into the mouth of ice above,

My eyes resisting

The sting,

Lungs screaming In celebration,

Feet beating steps

Into that wilderness of white

And mind.

Any thought removed, but

Seeing all too clearly

Another clime

Another aroma, A subtle scent heady

With human yearning.

Burnished flowers Of yellow and ivory.

And then I awoke.