A Mountain

2007-11-28 01:34:29.000 – Kevin Talbot,  Summit Volunteer

A MWO profile

A Mountain

I know a mountain that holds a river in its arm;
Whose mother-breast keeps tenderly wee, slender birches warm!
I know a mountain crowned with laurel, pink and white;
That gleams a friendly shadow against the velvet night!
Whose mighty song the wind-gods catch and blow a-down the world…
Whose hearty breath is caught in tears to see the fern fronds curled!
Whose love leaps swift and sure of foot down countless moss-grown trails;
Whose patient trees uphold the snow, whose springtime never fails!
I know a mountain that holds communion with the stars;
Receives the thrust of centuries, and blooms to hide its scars!
Oh! May I, like my mountain, with faith serene and high,
Conceal my wounds with blossoming against whatever sky!

-Dorothy Evelyn Begg, my maternal grandmother from her book of poems, Ghostflowers.

Another week has passed, the fourth week of my life I have spent cooking for the Obs crew on the Rockpile. As always, it has been a pleasure to spend time with the crew, who have welcomed me to their home as an honored guest. Things have been different on this trip than they have been on my previous trips, as you can read about on my thread in the forum section of this website, if you haven’t already. I know there are many who would like to make this trip, but cannot afford a week of their time. To them I would suggest an Edu trip. It is how I got started, and really introduces you to the lifestyle on the summit.

I will be posting more photos of this trip to my website when I get home. You can also find more of my grandmothers poetry there. How she would have been amazed at the technology that has brought you her poem. She never would have dreamed it possible, as I never would have dreamed that one day I would be on the summit of Mount Washington cooking for the Obs crew. Dreams do come true!

Kevin Talbot,  Summit Volunteer