Come Up!

A Poem From the Mountains

Some time ago my wife and I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail. This was when we were living in VA not terribly far from the nearest trail head. We packed up the dog and a couple ruck sacks and hit the road.

After a full day of trekking we spent the following night on the peak of High Top Mountain with a fresh water spring near by and sweeping vistas of the range.

I wrote a poem as we walked, the grade becoming steeper, the views more regal. An occasional glimpse of a distant ridge slowly became vast panoramas of the entire valley and surrounding mountain tops, higher and more grand than ours, all laid out before us like a quilt.

The poem is about the irresistible call of those distant summits to ‘Come up!’ I hope you enjoy.

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Come Up!

Time’s passage marked with beating chest

with driven step ‘neath laden vest

and hill and mount as if in jest

they call to us ‘Come up! Come up!’

And our response laid here in soil

deep tracts of earth to show our toil

for one can scarce deny this royal

siren song. ‘Come up! Come up!’