Loving in the Heat of the Burning Mountain

Loving in the Heat of the Burning Mountain

The mountain wall threw itself up
In the air that burned that day
A thousand years had turned to smoke
Flashed up and out
Searching with its blue yellow fingers
Scratching out the ancient trees
Leaving black behind
India ink black outlines of great firs
That wanted nothing more than
A small space on the mountainside

So wrapped up I was in the arms
Of the great mountainside
Home to wonderful eagles and otters
Bands of Kingfishers hovering
Presenting themselves to me
All attentive to what I could bring
To that grandeur and all I could give
Was a paltry poem or two
A song of being wrapped by attentive
Love and beauty and then unwrapped
Like never before with an internal
Love of all that beauty
Shared in the space of the burning mountain
The core of all that beauty still remained
Unapproachable seeming to escape
A desire for closeness
Yet leaving behind an intimacy
Of pain of loss of a life of giving
Without return
Of growth to the distant sun
Of nights under the distant moon 
Of being wrapped and unwrapped
Of folding and unfolding
Of giving all without any return
That being is a being of all
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust