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Passage -Mountain River Landscape by John Van Alstine |
Mountain River Passage
By Stormcat
unconquered
Wildness dictates necessity of such
miles certainly
the alternative is
walk
two, three .
. . hundred
Jagged
giants threaten . . .
by day ten-
thousand
spears of sunlight
sparkling
diamonds surface
invade
uberconstricted irises
blinding steersman
captains navigators without
regard to
rank or wealth
wild men
beasts and
eerie silence
real
as raw death
has won more often than one cares to contemplate
cool shade
on deep southern-bank-channels
soothe
sunburned
lips and nose
what of the
blood mooned starry nights
where growl
of beasts
motivate well
kept
campfires
next to
tenuous moorings
and restless
passengers wallow in tiring slumber
awaiting dreading
another day
of endless pool and drop
with names
like auger falls, zee trap rapid
death trail,
and the grim reaper
lulling
boredom followed
by utter
terror
followed
by boredom
then terror then . . . boredom terror boredom terror until
one rainbow
over
humble structure
after demonic
deluge
and the welcome
muscle-taxing-sweaty-tedious-unloading cargo
The path certainly seem tough and challenging. It is good for the goodness of life! Great write Stormcat!
ReplyDeleteHank
The combination of both boredom and terror would be hard to contend with.
ReplyDeletethat lulling terror...sometimes we try to keep ourselves usy so we dont have to think about it...but it seldom works you know...its still there and niggling....but sometimes too that is where i work it our best, doing mindless work
ReplyDeleteI had a sense of "whistling past the graveyard" while reading this...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, but also frightening, description of the Mountain River Passage! "ten / thousand spears of sunlight / sparkling diamonds surface /invade uberconstricted irises" - my favorite lines!
ReplyDeleteI love the "ten thousand spears of sunlight".....it sounds like an adventurous passage - but a beautiful one.
ReplyDeleteI liked the last line especially, and the richness of the description throughout.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the journey could be dangerous but, ten thousand spears of sunlight would surely help one through..
ReplyDeleteTen thousand spears of sunlight...What a beautiful description! :)
ReplyDeleteMuch tighter and grittier ~ I like it ~
ReplyDeleteParts remind me of our morning kayak journeys down the West Branch when we travel directly into the sun and our comments that it was like riding a conveyor of diamonds - nice.
ReplyDelete