At above 16,000 feets,
Stood a beautiful monster of nature.
Its majestic head— a beauty from distance
Kisses the endless expanse blue sky
Crafting a captivating spectacle
That ignites morethan just the imagination.
Oh, Kilimanjaro, you're morethan just a mountain
You're a beacon of wonder
A symbol of grace
An eternal treasure
A gift for all — not just Tanzania but the world.
Far
Away
in space
and time, yet
fixed in memory
we wake in the dark
and climb the spree by
flashlight reaching Gilman’s
Point where we watch the sun rise
in the east over the Indian Ocean, just
like Hemingway, then past Leopard’s Point
where in 1926, Reusch found a frozen feline at
the edge of the receding glacier and no one knows
why was it there but then I’m not sure why I was there
as we slowly trudged onward through the thin air to Uhuru
where I sign the summit list-and will get a certificate at the base
but only on our return home do I discover that the Blue Jays blew a
3-1 lead in the American League finals to KC who won the World Series
Serene in silence
nature's solemn dignity
inspiring passion
inexorable to time
barricade of permanence
12/28/2017
Tanka Contest
Sponsored By Rick Parise
Damn your rocks
And slippery slopes
And the ice that clings
To your sides
Damn the way
You challenge my skill
Or the way you
Entice me higher
Damn the sound
Of your laughing clouds
And the rains
That beat at your heart
And damn the winds
And the ice and snow
That hold me here
And won’t let me go
While I wait for the sun
To set night on the run
But time goes so slow
It almost seems to stop
While I wait for the morning to show
But that’s just how it is
When you’re climbing way up
To the peak of Kilimanjaro
To the many hills that provide the most beautiful scenic views
To the people whose speech only provides melodic tunes of Bongo flava
To the heat, that make every night a celebration
To the cool waters, a swimmer's paradise, a fisherman's goldmine, a local's daily gift and a tourist's eternal camera shot
To the food, a signature that blends all the people, every tribe loving the other more
To the white peaked mountain, magnificent and always hiding in the clouds
I traveled and see
The mount of glory
Where animal and person
Live as friends
The mountain of peace
Caries two peaks
Home of wonders
Guests be keen on
Mawenzi is the smaller
Kibo is the taller
They all have snow
Melts to life juice
The mountain is splendor
Tanzania must celebrate
sheltered colonizers and travelers
Kilimanjaro is the mount
Where lord was worshiped
A mount of glory where glory lives
Dare not missing once in being
People come people go
They dare again going
They felt the beauty
More and they live
Our friends and neighbors
Live in mount’s gossip
That we play and teasing
Though lucky than them
Still illiterate and stupid
Of all the years!
No body had volunteered
Made policies
that attract sightseer
Only is thought
pouching and smuggling
I hate this life, full of poverty
On natural richness!
KILIMANJARO
Almost lost. Scanty ice below equator,
Trackless wilderness of ice and fire.
Africa’s king. I’ve climbed none higher.
Kilimanjaro with majestic crater
Like the long-gone dodos, - somnolent
Before this white man
Saw such ground of black obsidian -
Kilimanjaro - not extinct, but dormant .
Gift valley to Kaiser from Queen
Rift valley - my world is coming apart.
Where do I go , where to start?
The Snows of Kilimanjaro are barely seen.
Hemingway knew the score
How high do we aim?
With our excuses so lame?
And what do we settle for?
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