Climbing Half Dome - Barry Vesser

[Lawrence Robinson]

Climbing Half Dome

(For Kirk Keeler)

There are some decisions
We make or don’t make,
Things we see or don’t see
That have consequences.
They can be hammers or gateways, 
sometimes both at once.
If we are not clear, 
We can become frozen 
Looking backward into a past
 that does not exist.

Training is hard work,
 but hard work can be 
joyful with the gift of purpose.
Your mind and body working
For a common goal.
The folly of expectation
Lost in the regime of slowly 
building strength, skill, and resolve.
There is pain, there is monotony,
And there is an ineffable feeling 
That something larger 
Is growing within you.

Up here it is clear,
Everything can change
in a moment.
Your partner holds the line, 
feels your weight in his hands. 
It is fluid movement, 
working with the rock
As everything changes, 
your grip, the light, 
Your muscles contracting 
and letting go, the next foothold.
You are totally vulnerable
And free, just like the rest of us.

Working with the elements
Feeling your training 
Like a friend whispering 
in your ear.
Feeling the rock in you,
Feeling the hand hold 
reach out for your hand. 
With respect, acceptance, 
And reverence you rise.
So focused that the usual doubts
And regrets have no place to perch
They just slide off the rock
Taken by the wind,
Leaving you to experience 
the soaring beauty of this moment
Without frame, without reference.

On the summit you feel
The rush of accomplishment, yes,
But also a deep sense of peace,
As if your climb is like the passing of a cloud,
Leaving its delible mark on the rock,
And a feeling that you have freed 
something larger than yourself.

You will still have to descend 
and face the next decision 
But now it and you
Are part of the landscape.

This is the gift 
that you give us.
Those that understand, 
bow down.

	- Barry Vesser
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