My Father's Mountain

 

 

Before my living, breathing breath
Had moved upon these stones
My father had a mountain
In the marrow of his bones

Wild huckleberry gathering
And starry midnight swims
Crossing paths with wild things
And stories shared with friends

Sunrise rushing down his face
On hard-won tracks of snow
The great wide earth on fire
With a secret alpenglow     

The waterways and rivers there
Would sing him into sleep
His lake was full of spirits
Who moved along the deep

From childhood joys and growing cares
She stood constant and steadfast
Until my father’s mountain
Had breathed her very last

She said goodbye that day in spring
Beginning with a silence
Until the world was full of sound
And a horrifying violence

The years have fled since she was lost
And now I explore the earth
My father’s mountain in my heart
From stories told since birth

One day when I was very young
I wandered towards the wild
And there I was amazed to meet
The old lost mountain’s child 

We two were very close in age
With adventure in our bones
I was breathing wildfire
And she was made of stone

To my darkest days she brought the sun
And hours of golden light
And in my grief we watched the stars
Where horizon met the night

My father’s mountain still lives on
As does his mountain heart
In the memory I will keep 
Until the next new start

When my daughter and her mountain
And all their dearer things
Will light the sky on fire
And dream their brightest dreams

My father had a mountain
In the marrow of his bones
So I could stand the taller
On this mountain of my own

"Heaven Can Wait" by Miles Morgan