High Sierras
High Sierras
In the high plateaus down to the sun-drenched plains
The mighty Colorado rushing wild
Surged swiftly on towards its ancient home.
Caught in its currents like a gleeful child,
Carried on waves of joy to unknown banks
Where pebbles glowed like a monarch’s rubied crown,
My simple life complete, unstrained by thought,
Unscarred by doubt that clouds the mind’s unknown,
Or a thousandfold desires yet unfilled.
I was at peace and all experience
Awaited me in the rapturous beats of time
As I played at will in the rivers of innocence.
Through skies that whispered of a harmony
Not yet on earth but waiting to descend,
My soul rose up through limb and leaf and tree,
The presence of the redwoods entered me
As I walked in forests ageless and immense
And felt beneath my feet earth’s majesty,
Her unvoiced yearning subtle and intense
For light’s descent and deep tranquillity.
It seemed the springtime of a life of song.
A music hidden in a dream of stars
Awoke the sleep-hung soul to long-lost strains,
Not yet the pains of growth, the inner wars.
In the high Sierras Nature wooed my soul,
The moon my faithful paramour of bliss
And lissome deer companions of the wood,
The grass my bed, the rain my morning’s kiss.
I travelled far through snow-clad banks of peace
And walked in meadows murmurous with song
To the bare peaks where a dangerous music called,
Alluring voices of the siren throng.
The rugged hills descended to the sea
In groves so dense the sunlight’s weakened rays
Like gossamer appeared or pale moth light
In a dim cathedral where all Nature prays.
In rock strewn coves the ocean waters spumed
And cypress trees like tortured limbs of saints
In stoic agony embraced the soil.
Relentless winds assailed and Nature’s plaints
Rose up from time-worn cliffs, her prayers unheard.
Yet she defies the onslaughts of the surge,
The storms, the fierceness of the wintry gales,
For all obeys the life-force’ hidden urge
And I a boundless soul among the flowers
Must learn to bloom as they, to joy align,
The seconds feel as vast eternal hours,
Truth my guide and love and light my sign.
