An Everlasting Rose

A mountain stood before me

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

 Thanks and admiration

Where the wind forever blows

To the soul of perseverance

In the beauty of a rose 

-Hermit King-

Dedicated to

Sophie Rose Barton

On a mountain taken too soon