For Josephus, who would have seen it as I did.




Estes Park, Colorado, 1964

Ay, on the shores of darkness there is light,

And precipices show untrodden green.

     John Keats, To Homer

 

Memory and rapture are so intertwined

that they become a single gesture.

   Mark Strand

 

  

Hiking alone up a trail so old, so barely

There, I was sure the last feet that trod

It had worn moccasins, stalking a deer

Or mountain goat up to the promontory.

 

Clouds so close I felt and heard them

Moving, nudging me on and up and then

Down, and as I rounded a ridge, below

Was a deep meadow of columbine, yellow

 

So pure it stunned and shimmered like light

On water, swelling across the green ground,

Breaking against the back of the mountain,

Going and staying as running water will,

 

Tideflow over the scree to granite seawall,

Scrim and spume, lift and fall, of flowers

Swaying; the sea turning its treasures over

And over in its soft hands; how nothing

 

Is ever beyond its reach and consideration.

In that moment the world turned on itself,

The way sea and sky, light and shadow,

Become one element at horizon's edge,

 

The columbine no longer floating between

But ascending, coloring the valley of clouds.

The only direction left now is revelation,

Looking down and falling up into the light.





Poetry by countryfog
Read 672 times
Written on 2012-05-04 at 17:06

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Blilith
Brilliant.

I love walking across the moors, but have to do it slowly now.
This really invoked the feeling I get. To be out in the wild on your own is awesome. Just wildlife and nobody else (I have been SAS trained and always carry enough to make sure if it gets bad I can survive).

Applaud

Brings back memories

Thank you...
2012-05-10


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
I hope that you don't find this insulting, Fog. Your poem reminds me of Wordsworth. He, too, revered nature and wrote about it with much grace.
2012-05-08


shells
Thank you for letting me "see" what you have seen, your phrasing is stunning.
2012-05-05


Elle The PoetBay support member heart!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this

Elle x
2012-05-05



I love the image of 'falling up.' Immaculately shaped form and exquisite descriptions of nature and your response to its grandeur and awe.
2012-05-05


jenks The PoetBay support member heart!
Quite something.
2012-05-05


josephus The PoetBay support member heart!
I am humbled to read this magnificent poem and have you assume that I would have your vision. I've seen the sea in fields of grain and flowers and in the dense stands of pines on mountain sides as the wind strokes them, but I would have never translated those visions into the physical dynamic, surrealism and revelation as you have in this wonderful poem. My hat is off to you my friend!

Joe
2012-05-04


ken d williams The PoetBay support member heart!
The date got me to thinking C F , a story/poem has to flow ;)
Of what you wrote I simply say thank you fore shearing with us.
Ken
2012-05-04



Few places have hit me like Estes Park, I understand what lies behind this poem; or, not to presume, I think I do. My discovery of the park came when I was eighteen, just the right age perhaps—my boon companion, a German shepherd named Govinda, and I traveling the back roads. Seems like a long time ago. Funny, I was working as a ranch hand at the time, taking a year off from college, and took a day off from work to drive from eastern Co, to the park, from the arroyos and washes to the mountains and back in a day. Two worlds, one more fascinating to me than the next.
2012-05-04