"A few hours' mountain climbing make of a rogue and a saint
two fairly equal creatures."
"I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land."
Midweek Motif ~ Mountain
Mountains draw me to them, perhaps because I was born in the shadow of the Catskill Mountains and played on mountain sides as a child. Heights and metaphors both scared me at one time, but I never could stay away. Can you?
Challenge: Let's take each other into the mountains with this week's new poem ~ or at least onto one "mountain" of your choice.
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BY LI PO
TRANSLATED BY SAM HAMILL
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
Li Po, �Zazen on Ching-t�ing Mountain,� translated by Sam Hamill from Crossing the Yellow River:
Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese. Copyright � 2000 by Sam Hamill.
excerpt from Chattanooga
BY ISHMAEL REED
1
Some say that Chattanooga is the
Old name for Lookout Mountain
To others it is an uncouth name
Used only by the uncivilised
Our a-historical period sees it
As merely a town in Tennessee
To old timers of the Volunteer State
Chattanooga is �The Pittsburgh of
The South�
According to the Cherokee
Chattanooga is a rock that
Comes to a point
They�re all right
Chattanooga is something you
Can have anyway you want it
The summit of what you are
I�ve paid my fare on that
Mountain Incline #2, Chattanooga
I want my ride up
I want Chattanooga
. . . .
(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation.)
I go to the mountain side
of the house to cut saplings,
and clear a view to snow
on the mountain. But when I look up,
saw in hand, I see a nest clutched in
the uppermost branches.
I don�t cut that one.
I don�t cut the others either.
Suddenly, in every tree,
an unseen nest
where a mountain
would be.
for Drago ?tambuk
[Used here without permission.] Tess Gallagher, "Choices" from Midnight Lantern:New and Selected Poems.
Copyright � 2011 by Tess Gallagher. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press.
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Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others
in the spirit of the community.
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(Next week, Sumana's Midweek Motif will be Courage. )
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