"Mt. Tremblant"

This piece was written in answer to a challenge at WildPoetry Forum. The challenge was to write a poem that could be read from the bottom up or the top down and make sense in either direction. Of all the challenges that have been posted, I found this one to be one of the most difficult. For the most part, I think I succeeded in meeting the challenge requirements and writing a poem with good technique. Perhaps I could have written a better poem without the constraints of the format, but it was an excellent discipline.

It was inspired by a 3 1/2 hour hike we took while vacationing in Mt. Tremblant.



“Mt. Tremblant: Read This Poem From the Bottom Up”

The path beckons us to the mountain top.
We pierce the clouds that shroud the sky,
Up through shadows and mist,
Our eyes adjust to the patterns of light, dark, light,

The sky winks at us.
Moss muffles the noise of our passage
As footfalls drum against the trail,
Branches tremble in a damp breeze.

Light rain beads on upturned leaves,
The spice of crushed fern and pine rises.
Ozone cleans the air, cools our sweaty faces
As we press on, our leg muscles cramp,

The effort of climbing burns our lungs.
We thirst and the forest shares its bounty.
Wild raspberries peek out from a green screen.
At the edge of the thicket

Birds scold us from hidden nests.
We have borrowed the living peace.
It drapes the wood, settles over us
A blanket woven from whispers and silence--

We move from easy laughter to reverence
As the day shifts overhead
Checking our progress against the map
An ant crawls faster than we do.

But it is easy to lose ourselves
Searching for where green shades into blue.
At the base, we thought to conquer her,
A gentle scramble through slender birch then fir.

ljcohen, 2005