Mountaineer
I am a mountain waiting to be climbed,
its slopes slippery and rough
with fortifications.
This poem is the face
I am inviting you to scale,
not taking the clearly defined path
that prose would provide,
but a harder course with handholds and footholds
that will not give way if you
use your mind to select a wise course.
If I did not trust you so, I would give you a secure railing
like one provided in showers and bathtubs
for the elderly;
but I know, if you have made it this far,
that you have the stamina to make it on your own.
Every mind is a majestic mountain waiting to be climbed
and also a climber sometimes bent on climbing,
at other times, content
to stand at the mountain’s base,
waiting for the scree to come to him.
This is a rewrite of an earlier poem For dVerse poets pub. Majestic
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
I love this, Judy — your endings are always wonderful, but so are your metaphors for life, for personalities!
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I like the analogy 🙂
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The reminds me of Mohammed and the mountain.
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Hopefully that scree doesn’t come too fast for that dreamy climber! Of poetry, I definitely prefer no railings.
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Me, too. And an incline that isn’t impossible.
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I really dig that opening line! And I feel much the same way about poetry vs. prose. 🙂
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Good observation: “Every mind is a majestic mountain waiting to be climbed”
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I like the idea of a mind being like a mountain to be climbed.
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This is such a powerful poem and gives the reader a message that’s needed (especially in this era of shortening attention spans and psychological asphyxiation.) I loved how there’s another message woven – about the poem itself. Yes, a good poem is never direct, but must urge the reader to fight to find its beauty and truth.
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Thanks, Nitin. I love that you “got” the message.
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