Poem # 32: Squaretop Mountain

Note: Squaretop Mountain is located in Wyoming's Wind River Range in the Bridger-Teton National Forest (the second largest national forest outside of Alaska at 3.4 million acres) and its snow melt-off and rainfall help form the Upper and Lower Green Lakes, which in turn are the headwaters for the Green River of Utah (and ultimately the mighty Colorado River) which we'll be canoeing for ten days (130 miles) in September. Scott and I backpacked the Squaretop Mountain area in 1998. This photo shows Squaretop Mountain and its reflection in the lake.




Squaretop Mountain

It’s there, imprisoned by fog,
but I know it’s there.
For four days I’ve admired it soaring free.
I’ve meditated on it, photographed it,
hiked miles to it
and around it
and slept beneath it.
Now the enshrouding haze
envelops it, obscures it,
removing it from visual perception.
Still I sense it, feel it.
I know it is there
and soon will soar freely again.

Like my future, my destiny, my fate
similarly ensnared in impenetrable fog,
revealed bit by bit, moment by moment.
Often imagined, prayed for, believed in,
but as uncertain as one’s next breath,
unknown until it occurs,
imprisoned by the future
until released by the present.
Peer though I might, wish though I may
I can neither discern it nor predict it,
any more than I can now see Squaretop,
but can only await its revelation
as each day’s unveiling sunlight
washes away the fog.

copyright 1998 by Chuck Morlock