Light’s Darkness


He knew wonder well.

 
It could cancel fear
And bestow courage,
A nexus for survival.

A predawn beginning ,
His solo-climb of the face,
Thought crazy by doubters,
Had started swift and easy,
The results of plans,
Rehearsals,
Confidence .

The wall’s darkness was his own,
Anchoring piton after piton,
Securing each meter of ascension by feel,
With unharnessed confidence of mind .

For this was a climb of defiance,
Knowing few if any,
Might or would,
Ever understand his exhilaration,
His unique love of climbing-chalk and sweat ,
Carabineers and rope,
Anchors and ascenders,
Tenuous connections to life,
All married to his inner eclipse,

Yet at the halfway point…

Exhaustion appeared,
Adrenalin waned,
His pendulum traverse had missed,
Time seemed to stop,
Flesh and rock collided
Bringing cold panic,
Seizing breath to hold,
Suspending threatened fate.

Even as the 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
Fifteen hundred feet below,
His straight down reality .

Minutes passed…

Awe and respect,
Life’s often ignored necessitude
Hung together with him
Against the sheared mountain,
Some predicted his dreaded finale.

With tenacity as partner,
Calmness merged with a blanket of sunrise warmth,
The crisis became the past now,
This test of tests faced completion.

His mind eased back to a climber’s trust.

Careful feeling about delivered firm grips.

Precise movement renewed determination,
Moving him deftly toward the descent team’s cheers
Waiting on distant topside.

Resisting aid…

 
He reached the summit,
And gathering minutes of needed rest,
Even amidst the accolades and glee,
He prepared for the hard part,
The trek down the backside.

This blind climber knew,
Like those with eyes to see,
Exhaustion can make the inner optics of even a simple return route
More dangerous than the climb .

With the descent team
Assisting his tired body,
The crude trail carved
For bushwhacking
Brought danger often missed
Until it was too late.

Loose scree.

 
Roots of trees.

 
Ruts and tenuous rocks.

With sightless vision,
He maneuvered the precarious path.
His certain smile becoming contagious,
Moving shaking heads of doubters once
To embrace a blind climber’s wonder…

As their own.