Three Peaks

 

Dŵr (Water) Prelude to Three Peaks

 

A challenge in times and distance

depends on fortune now,

as leavers part

and losers start

to chase a dream somehow.

 

But where is fortune’s romance?

And where are fortune’s dreams?

Within they dance

to take that chance

and realise what just seems.

 

I  The Long Climb

 

A challenged man returns.

Words spoken

in a time of hastened wishes

are heard again,

easily, above the absent wind.

Here is chance and freedom

to know himself again,

so take that first step upwards,

disturbing the fresh settling snow.

 

A lasting look along the path

follows a careless glance –

aware now of the hardness ahead.

 

Pause to behold the scene –

the shifting winter clouds descending

across the elusive hills, disguising

the way and distance, extending.

Greyness fills the skies and air,

but the brightness of the green reflects

the will to return fulfilled

by the spirit of friendship,

of sharing a painful hardship.

 

II  Ravenscall

 

Descend and dance unseen.

Calling, harshly, so that now I look.

I see your outline, black against the ice,

barely flickering a wingtip, floating

on forbidden freezing flurries

you fly from below

and hold the wind.

 

Boasting with the broadness of wings

you drift above us, as we endure each step,

slipping back and glancing up,

you turn and dive again beneath the peak

above.

 

Each call and loop you make

in your majestic mountain show

inspires my next step upwards.

And then an acrobatic twist,

a helf-second adjustment of primaries

and you’re far above once more,

calling down in wonder

of our slow sure progress.

 

III Himalaya

 

The air is silver with light

scattered in the fleeting snow,

reflecting the whitened gaze of earth

to the shifting stare of storm’s sky.

 

Anywhere in the world, amongst the sky…

we could be there…

 

…the calming world whispers with us.

 

IV Summit

 

The distance is here.

Our final rising steps are

the firmest placed,

against the frozen ground.

 

Opening before us,

the mist reveals our place

away from Himalaya, yet close

to another Elysium, where the purity of air

and light refresh the searching heart.

 

Here, above all our efforts, we are found.

The warming sun’s rays,

even in the crisp February breeze,

mimic a love of life.

 

Ravens had wheeled above them

now dance and call below,

for the blue skies now yield heaven

to the walkers of the snow.

 

V  The Fourth Peak

 

Unknowing, the descending climb begins.

The sun withholds her warmth,

though this glowing evening frames the land

in a halo of glistening golden shadows.

She is tempting, displaying Elysian summer skies

through time’s veil of grey.

 

But time is an illusion,

measured by the waiting heart,

as the distance retreats beneath emboldened footsteps –

the sure purity of friendship defies

the final peak of time itself.

 

 

 

© Andrew Williams 1994

 

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