SUBJECT>Re: Climbing to Redemption -- Revised (CTG) POSTER>spike the punch EMAIL> DATE>1109471761 EMAILNOTICES>no IP_ADDRESS>AC804B76.ipt.aol.com PASSWORD>aaKaxp3Iqom06 PREVIOUS>83883 NEXT> 84049 IMAGE> LINKNAME> LINKURL>

christopher-

this is an instance where the poet should go with his instincts: this should remain as written.

its style is descriptive, but it's a style that works well here. i enjoyed the climb with you and felt the same sort of pantheism i feel when i read gary snyder's poetry. there is a spiritual side to this poem that perhaps has eluded other readers thus far, but i've found in the details themselves.

the only change i'd make is to remove 'to' from the title-- and i think the idea of redemption being found in a relationship, on the side of a mountain- is a wonderful one indeed.

STP

: Climbing to Redemption

: Stacy and I ninja-climb
: the hoary, gnarled redwood,
: its ribbed, ancient bark,
: ascend a tenth of a mile,
: from the green sorrel
: forest floor to entr

: the wilderness of Redemption
: that has flourished here two
: millennia as she gathered
: and harbored pixie lichens,
: leather-leaf ferns, reindeer moss.

: Two flying squirrels squeak
: past me as I cinch my lanyard,
: check my Blake's hitch.

: I breathe and Redemption breathes: she's
: holding our lives in limbo.

: Stacy switches on her silver miner's lamp
: to study some huckleberries,
: record the blood red fruit
: with her digital camera.

: As I ascend further to
: Redemption's canopy to seek
: the sun in her crown
: and hang in free motion,
: I pass orange hollows, caves
: that held fire long ago,

: and Stacy blows me a kiss,
: mouths "I love you"
: explorer to explorer
: climbing to Redemption.

: Christopher T. George