The very air is different in those places so untouched,
smooth and unburdened.
You can fill yourself, let it in with a breath
and it will seek every crack and crevice,
it swirls in the lungs and mends.

You could just about leap -
cast yourself from the very pinnacle of earth,
Forget the stone which proffers you
an open palm to the waiting sky,
Let the renewing air cradle you,
lift you up and twist you around,
show you the world as it sees
the wrinkles in a quilted landscape.

Scramble your fingers
along the jagged earth
to find purchase.

Oh, the drop, the fall,
the catch of breath,
how it sings,
how it calls!

We were scaling Mount Si
when a cloud rolled in so thick
we had to wipe the mist from our faces.
Our shadows, already growing longer,
disappeared entirely
and the time we measured
by the burning in our legs
and the shortness of our breath
seemed to go with them.
Light no longer came just from above,
it was all around us, equally,
and it was then that I thought part of us
would never return and that moment
would never end, when you gasped
and whispered, LOOK,
your arm outstretched,
and there floating out of the fog
was a ghost, and then a shadow,
and finally stepping onto the rocks
as new as creation itself,
a beautiful, white ram.

From "Bird's Nest In Your Hair" by Brian Jobe

New Hiking Shoes for the Trail Ahead

The road goes ever on and on…

-J.R.R. Tolkien

While I was looking for something else I found
A pair of hiking shoes still in their box
From a year ago – in anticipation
Of a summer vacation that never was

And there was no holiday again this year
It was all coronavirus and hurricanes
I had forgotten those shoes, but here they are
All ready for some sunlit summer road

While I was looking for something else I found
A pair of hiking shoes, and a bit of hope

Hovering around
From this mountain on its ground,
Designing venture.
Besides, I've learned the danger.

I've prepared the map and the compass,
But I forgot to eat my breakfast.
Enough is breather from the multimedias --
Forced to pass, ached for the grass.

Lifting my weight up above.
Climbing the top to see the doves.
Gripping tightly, not to plummet.
Mind's fixation on the summit.

this rising brought to a halt
as i stopped in the middle, i could see
the trees, and houses and sea salt
How major? How big is this beauty?

as i lift this weight above, i've felt
this landscape of exception and worth,
my life of insignificance as i melt
how small i am compared to the earth

"and at once i knew I was not magnificent"
i sang as i hike as i taste the holocene

Of  moving outside our comfort zones
Would you think to meet your echoes?
By hiding in the mountains there are choices:

To turn your back on what you have become,
A wander goat or a missionary bird?

To embrace the fear of knowing that you can go beyond,

To hold your breath, bring the mountain into routine being.

Don’t we all have our mountains to climb,
believe it or not
When we do, the view is amazing

Fall / by Elaine Yu

i know why it is called “fall”
Like a piece of heaven fall
Wait for us and never fade
Not until your laughter echoed in the valley
Not until the mud splashed on our shoes
Not until you conquered the hill and creek
Not until you gave me your precious self-made hiking stick
Not until you played enough in this fall

That year an angle fall
Ignite my world with a smile
And love I fall into
Never fall apart

We walked to Sealers Bay, four of us, all women
Bleeding Madonnas on a pilgrimage in the rain, together yet alone
each to her own journey
Moving like the floods of 2011, ready to take out any obstruction
Mud ******* at our feet, rainforest leeches suckling our blood like desperate children
The rhythm of my feet set off a reverie of how I lost my mind just a moment ago.
I found it again, blood pumping in my ears, heart pounding like thunder
The sweat running down my neck made me think of you…wondering where, how, who?  
A futile fancy
Still the rainforest clings to me, my feet echoing on the boardwalk,
the sound of running water filled with tannins
emotions of the forest flowing beneath my feet to Sealers Bay
A beach once stained with the blood of whales lies calm and blue, deceptive
A moment of sunshine found me sprawled on the sand, waves of exertion washed over me
The repose was fleeting.
Nature interrupted sending a shower, and a chill up my spine
A journey is rarely one way and retracing my steps is like retracing a lifetime
…would it have been better if?..
Eventually I turn my mind skyward to a flock of black cockatoos screeching like banshees at the women trudging one foot in front of the other in a winter forest
Nineteen kilometres of contemplation can quieten a busy mind, it is the number of surrender and endurance
The feeling of my toenail lifting in my boot is strangely cathartic
like a mistress, how pain focuses thoughts on the detail
I see tiny red Correas, the *** organs of plants, there for the pleasure of others
My buttocks and calves scream as the incline of the hill steepens, spurring me on
pleasure in pain makes you forget yourself, and the forest
there's just breathe and movement and rhythm

Glistening in the sun
Light-hearted. A release. Fun.
Gliding along. Riding the wind. Drifting. Soaring.
A magical orb, transporting you back to a childhood
So carefree. So happy. So easy.
Floating, without a care in the world.
A moment of pleasure. A moment to treasure.
The freedom. Serenity. Complete lack of responsibility.

Of a bubble

Atop a rock, aloft.
The valley spread below.
A pat of sun melts down my chin
and smears amongst my toes.
The wind brushes my lips,
a kiss of pine and grass,
My soul, it hungered, I was fed
from nature never fast.

The cold reveals the air being taken
By a foreigner who has just awaken;
They hear the rain hitting his tent
And smells an earthly scent;

They pack the tent into a pack
And lifts the heavy load onto their back;
Begins the journey over the mountain
To see what beauties in contains;

The thickness of the fog is great
That it makes it difficult to travel straight;
The rain picks up as the wind blows harder
Which makes seeing difficult for the wanderer;

But the fog clears as the winds die,
The rain calms down as it falls from the sky;
The journeyman sees a clearing close by
And what it reveals could make anyone cry;

Drops rain down from heaven above
To the earth that absorbs it like a sponge;
The grass and trees become greener,
The air and ground grows colder;
Truly a beautiful sight for a traveler’s eyes.