Mount Rainier

I have seen you flash by Amidst thick green foliage and swaying pines Like a distant silver dream On receding skyline But was never satisfied For a close encounter I craved I did then go up The Space Needle in Seattle Hoping to have a clear view Of your snow-clad balding pate That thought profound thoughts Against mortal blues of the empty sky But, alas, you remained Elusive to sight Hiding behind shifting clouds Yesterday, I drove over a hundred miles Climbed my way to Sunrise Point Hoping for a close tete-a-tete You played truant again I saw a blank Of nothingness, void A grey screen of clouds and mist As snow-flakes flew around The board before me read You were somewhere there Amidst mighty peaks Right before my unseeing eyes Doesn't matter Rainier You are there, I know for sure Like the Himalayan peaks I haven't seen And yet am charmed by their beauty On calendars, picture-cards Inherent philosophy Their height and grandeur speak Better luck next time Rainier, you are a teacher I have now seen Lofty nothingness, void Against which I have all the peaks Of the world that speak Of Truth that belongs not to things But to an evanescent dream That the Lord, whoever He is Conjures up for stupid minds