ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Himalayan Reverie

As I went walking through the snow,
A long, long journey still to go,
The vast distinction slowly bled
Between what's live, and what is dead.
I saw my hand. I saw a rock.
I felt my toe against my sock,
And sock and rock, and toe and hand,
And little me, and this great land,
All seemed to blend, and melt as one
Beneath the bright, unwarming sun.

As I went striding through the ice,
I caught a glimpse of paradise
As past and future fell away
Till just this moment in the day
Remained - no second more or less -
And held me in its soft caress.
The wind blew hard, the cloud tufts raced,
Yet on I rambled, steady-paced.
Amidst this life and unlife melt
I ceased to think, and simply felt.

© Stephen Whiteside 21.11.2014

Well said Stephen, reminds me of a past sojourn to Old Manali in the Kullu Valley . . .

Marty

Lovely Stephen - a beautiful moment captured - doesn't get any better than that

Lovely Stephen. It made me smile.

Heather

A moment that would be quite euphoric I'd imagine.

Nice, Stephen! ... Wazza

It was for me - I was frollicking amongst the charas fields

Beautiful Stephen!

Thanks, all. This is not autobiographical - although in a way it is.

I am currently reading "Dead Lucky" by Lincoln Hall, the Australian mountaineer who was thought to have died on Mount Everest in 2006 after spending a night out near the summit, only to be found still alive the following morning. This poem was inspired by a passage in the book. It struck a chord with me, because I have had similar experiences walking in the Victorian Alps.