Luminosity’s Darkness
by Odin Roark

The strength of its emittance,
he knew it well,
canceling fear,
bestowing courage,
his nexus for survival.

Such was his predawn beginning,
his solo-climb of the face,
thought crazy by doubters,
yet the solo confidence
started swift and easy,
the results of plans
rehearsals,
trust.

The wall's darkness was his own,
anchoring piton after piton,
securing meter atop meter
ascension by feel,
unhampered assurance of mind.

Ahead was a climb of defiance,
knowing few if any
might or would
ever understand his need,
his unique love of climbing-chalk and sweat,
carabineers and rope,
anchors and ascenders,
tenuous connections to life
as he knew it,
a perpetual eclipse.

Yet at the halfway point...

Exhaustion appeared
adrenalin waned,
a pendulum traverse had missed,
time seeming to stop,
flesh and rock colliding,
cold panic seizing breath to hold,
a suffocating threatening fate.

Even as skill of a spider
had kept him safely vertical until now,
death's harassment had not been part of the plan.

His back rested against cold granite
the lead taste of blood from his nose
conflicted the balsam and cedar fragrance
gusting up from the valley floor.

Here he was,
fifteen hundred feet conquered,
high above his straight down reality

Minutes passed...

Awe and respect
life's often ignored necessitude
hung together with him,
continued trust against the sheared mountain
that some predicted a dreaded finale.

With tenacity as partner
calmness merged with a blanket of sunrise’s warmth
urging past the crisis now,
test of tests urged completion.

His mind eased back to a climber's conviction,
carefully feeling about,
realizing firm grips,
precise movement,
renewed determination,
moving him deftly upward,
the descent team's cheers
Waiting on distant topside.

Resisting aid,
he reached his revered summit,
then gathering minutes of needed rest,
amidst the accolades and glee,
he prepared for the hard part,
The descent down the backside.

This blind climber knew,
like those with eyes to see
exhaustion can make even a simple return to sanity,
more insane than the ascent.

With the descent team
and sightless vision,
he maneuvered the precarious route,
his certain smile becoming contagious,
moving the shaking heads of once doubters
to embrace a blind climber's luminosity,
enfolding around them as if…
such was their own.