God meets me in the mountains when I climb alone and high, Above the wrangling sinners and the jangling devotees, Up where the tapered spruce will guide my glances to the sky And canyon walls will mutely preach their mighty homilies In hush so dense that I can sense—is it my pulses drumming? Or God's light footfall, coming through the silvery aspen trees? Some way I seem to lose him in the jostle of the street, But on a twisty deer trail, as I trudge along alone, A mystic presence in the forest often stays my feet— No vision borrowed from a saint, but awesomely my own. I feel it smite my spirit white, the prophet's taintless passion, As ancient as the fashion of the pine tree's rugged cone. For me no school could give it life, as none can deal it death. Up through the pines' red pillars and across the snow and shale. Where science and theology alike are but a breath, I follow marks that make the wisest book an idle tale. Why should I squint at faded print to glimpse his timeworn traces? God walks the lonely places yet, where men first found his trail. Where pines reach up the mountains and the mountains up the blue, And, tense with some expectancy, the lifting ledges frown, The high desire of the hills is my desire too, For there my spirit laughs to fling its worldly duffle down And, shaking free exultantly, calls to its great companion! God meets me in the canyon when I miss him in the town. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LITTLE JERRY, THE MILLER by JOHN GODFREY SAXE NORTHBOUN' by LUCY ARIEL WILLIAMS MAXIMS FOR THE OLD HOUSE: THE CHAMBER by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH AT THE PLAY by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN THE FISHERMAN'S CHANT by FRANCIS COWLEY BURNAND THE SIEGE OF KAZAN; TARTAR SONG by ALEXANDER BOREJKO CHODZKO THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER; A SONG by THOMAS D'URFEY THE WEEPING CHILD by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE POET'S SEAT; AN IDYLL OF THE SUBURBS by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON |