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 lissom 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 spume

And cypress trees like tortured limbs of saints

In stoic agony embrace the soil.

Relentless winds assail and Nature's plaints

Rise 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.