Challenge to my soul
No one bade me climb here
It's crest my only goal
Each step would push another
The fee I paid was time
And though the way seemed brutal
The journey was sublime
As day wore on to sunset
Quickly came the night
Feet were bruised and broken
I had vowed to win the fight
Dawn would serve her glory
On a pilgrimage of pain
Cuts now long forgotten
Thoughts adrift and barely sane
The summit seemed illusion
As my knees embraced the ground
Though victory felt certain
This valiant quest was down
The breath in me was stolen
And my eyes began to close
I spied mid devastation
The beauty of a rose
Alit in shining silence
Atop a granite spire
Rooted in the bedrock
It's shade a raging fire
Reaching slowly over
I caressed the alpine gem
Had the mountain grown this beauty
Or just hung upon it's stem
Never could I end there
Where this seed had clung so high
Broken through earths mantle
And in brilliance touched the sky
Pushing ever upward
Renewed of life and power
Stride and I would conquer
The ordeal met on this tower
Oft times inspiration
Is less random with it's grace
Yet there above the tree line
Revelation found a place
Risen as she rose
Frozen in the hour
Time had led me where
A world adorned a flower
Frozen in the hour
Time had led me where
A world adorned a flower
Thanks and admiration
Where the wind forever blows
To the soul of perseverance
In the beauty of a rose
-Hermit King-
-Hermit King-
Dedicated to
Sophie Rose Barton
On a mountain taken too soon
