Icy Passion

View from on high,

Rising from the once birch and ash amidst

Pines’ shadow,

Vertical ice layers

Nature’s purchase,

Man’s challenge.

Down into the bowl,

Scree sprinkled deserts

Gather from barren lessor peaks,

Yesterday’s snow-clad mysteries.

Further down…

Swirling fall leaves

Sprinkle shimmering sun’s dalliance,

A fractal rainbow suspended terrace to terrace

Highlight the serpentine ascension

Where switchbacks carved the mountain sides

Having yielded long ago

Its blueberries and acorn foraging.

Still further down…

Creeping slowly,

The brambles,

Nature’s love thorn creepers,

Enfold meadow grasses thigh-high

Bend to wind’s call across the basin.

Finally…

Tundra’s home base,

Where a dog’s bark

Echoes up to

Mount Alberta’s pinnacle silence.

Breezes

Feather my precarious lullaby of dreams,

Making mystic rising dust,

Lavender fantasies,

Hovering over Fortress Lake’s misty fog.

Lights of dusk

From hamlets beyond

Signal early stars on high.

Keep safe this man,

As hands and feet

Seek bivouac rest before

Tomorrow’s climb into further unknowns.