Valiant Journey
from In Memory of Virginia Ruth Cook Krizek, page 27
Petaluma , 2005
Dance with me up the mountain,
as my ebullient spirit abates.
Climbing higher and higher
we move over life’s rocks and underbrush
all the while losing lifeforce.
In my childhood I thought
I would live forever.
Now, as I find myself closer
to the journey’s end,
I know better.
My eyes do not see.
My ears do not hear.
My legs cannot stand.
I fight my failing senses.
I alone will reach the mountain’s summit
(you are weeping in her foothills)
and standing there I will view the vast
sky that never ends,
and I become part of that endless expanse.
Oh, it is the journey, people say,
that makes the trip worthwhile.
(I still wonder if the saying is true)
Despite my growing frailties
I keep moving, moving inevitably
to the realization of my purpose;
uniting with the unknown infinity of the void.
Gasping like a salmon that has just bred,
I collapse on my mountain’s highest peak
and finally rest my worries.
Now I can let go of the world I know.
The light goes out of my eyes
and I abandon my soul to
the firmament while singing
a lullaby I heard as a child.