Ode to a Mountain Climber

                      Who knows a mountain?

Only a mountain climber knows,

as one who has scaled its heights

to worship its beauty in the dawn;

one who has slept on its breast;

one who has measured his strength

in its height;

one who has followed its longest trail

and laughed in the face of its fiercest gale.

A mountain climber

who has scaled its peaks

and climbed its windswept summits,

alone with God.

Only a mountain climber knows

the awesome feeling of being.