Vortex
for Mattie
"When I first caught sight of Mt. Shasta,
over the braided folds of the Sacramento Valley,
I was fifty miles away and afoot, alone and weary.
Yet all my blood turned to wine,
and I have not been weary since." - John Muir, 1874
Vacuums can appear as swirls
on the distant horizon, or, all of a sudden,
open at our feet, spin, pull us in.
Beauty, power, and danger:
a trident of transformation
pierces us, and we flip like caught fish.
Now, at the advent of tornado season,
perhaps we are right to tremble.
Change spirals in, never easy or complete.
We hang in flux, dynamic as clouds
circling a sacred mountain, painting
the sky with flying dragons.
Why does our deep wisdom
fly before us? We call, answered
by echoes, by rapturous
emptiness. And so, we sit.
We become still as the mountain,
holding firm, until the storm
passes, the green air departs,
and we are flooded with peace
as potent as sunset-colored wine.
Leslie Schultz
Thanks for these incredible images go to the blog “Hike Mt. Shasta” which includes many other images and resources for visitors. The photographer, John R. Soares, is a lucid and lyrical writer, and the well-known author of hiking guides for the California region. His books can be purchased on Amazon.
Wishing you a happy Earth Day today! LESLIE
Stillness–Meditation in any form always helps me–but why do I so often forget to remember that? (Lack of practice, perhaps?)
Oh my. Such beautiful photos, and a poem that describes human emotional turmoil when life throws curves at us. Thank you!
I am now seized with the ambition to hike Mt. Shasta!
Powerful images in your words. And the last paragraph captures the swirling unsettledness that I know of Tornado Season and that all of life can pull us into – that green sky that we must remind ourselves DOES lead to that sunset of settledness after a storm. Just beautiful, Leslie. The photos are remarkable as well. Thanks for letting us know about John Soares.