"Ode to a Mountain Top"

But could I tread in my own slow way
To some distant peak in the long past,
To look upon the Earth as it was.

The peak is the same: It will stay.
Intruding steps are not fast, they vanish away,
Leaving the peak as it was.

But the Earth is altered, "For the Good" most declare,
Though when viewed from the Mountain Top,
There is cause for despair.

The Mountain, being the same
Allows the Ones that know
to return again and again.

Relieving that pang, that longing in their souls;
Not for the Earth as Men have made it,
But as God would have it be.


Charles G. Pou
1921-2010
Written on the summit of Mt Whitney, 1968.