On the Unending Mountain

By Joergen Ostensen

5.28.19

I wrote this poem reflecting on a hike a went on in South Africa's Drakensberg Mountains. I am in South Africa on a study abroad program through Fordham University. We were able to spend a day hiking the the beautiful slopes of these wonderful mountains. After spending time learning about the horrors of apartheid and its terrifyingly real legacy, the mountains provided in me a sense of connection to nature. South Africa is filled with a contrast of beauty and horror. I think this poem was an attempt to capture some of that beauty and distill in into a poem that attempts to grapple with my belief in the goodness of the universe, despite the realities of a broken present.

There are flowers on the unending mountain

Red, orange, yellow

The flaming flowers that burn

Smoldering in the shadows

Between the stems of grass

Beneath the hidden peaks

Obscured in the smoky morning fog.

There are flowers on the banks

Of the fast, flowing, silver river

That cuts between the ancient stones

As the rushing, everlasting water,

Pure as sunlight shimmering in the shadows

Catching the rainbow

As it whispers

To the fire flowers of the mountain

Beneath the clouds above.

And lo the flowers softly answer

Smiling their sun washed smiles

Repeating early morning wisdom

To the everlasting river

As they hold their truths of transience

In every petal catching sunlight

Between the shadows of the mountain

Where the river keeps on rushing

Knowing only that no flower is forever

And every line of their beatific litany

Will drop and fall with winter

Someday to be replaced by others

Like the rainbow of the autumn

As the river keeps on rushing

As it has since the first flower

Beneath the clouds above.