Echo In the Mountains

I picked wild berries, gathered ripening grapes and tasted life's bittersweet wine. From fountains of youth by the river shore I spilled the gold from the Rhine. In Caucasian Mountains and the Austrian Alps I sought the elusive Edelweiss; Wild columbines I found in West Virginia where I searched for paradise. Keeping pace with my children's laughter and tears, my Rhine castles in sand faded away and I entered a vernal quietness in the dawn of a different day. When I traded past splendor for "Almost Heaven" to cross a defining sea and new life, I found that the quest for beauty was ever a part of me.