I want to BE there

the mountain’s moods

I need to feel fresh

every time I go outside in the Smokies

so that however the forest feels

I can wear that mood, too,

so that I can hear whatever leaf of story

floats down the creek,

so that I can know the quickly fleeting and the slowly changing,

so that I can know the constancy of being an instrument

upon which the mountain plays,

I was last here in high summer

when I sought to escape the heavy humid heat

and the forest was full of frenzy to make, to do,

now winter is upon us--

trees bare but for a light snow lining them

and a fire draws me in rather than pushes me away,

I missed the fall up here

as instead I fell and broke a bone

and I missed the golden moods between green and bare,

familiarity isn’t all that can dull me:

rather I must leave all the needs of my lowland life

which callous how I can feel with nerves already used elsewhere.    

by Henry H. Walker

November 28, ’13