This appears in a pre-2010 issue of cc&d magazine. Saddle-stitched issues are no longer printed, but you can requesting it “re-released” through amazon sale as a 6" x 9" ISBN# book! Email us for re-release to order.

this writing is in the collection book Charred Remnants (PDF file) download: only $9.95 (b&w pgs): paperback book $18.95 (b&w pgs):hardcover book $32.95 (color pgs): paperback book $74.93 (color pgs): hardcover book $87.95

Hiking Boots And Raingear

Ken Fisher

“Are you taking the cruise?”, they asked automatically

On hearing our dreams of Alaska,

Not understanding the lure of the earth-
The mountains, the forest, the tundra’s vast intrigue,
Migration of caribou swept cross the taiga,
Snowfields that cling to the crags long past summer,
Either sparkling in sunlight or camouflaged by the mist.

“Why not the cruise?” they ask in surprise

Until I speak of freedom felt when climbing up a glacier,

Choosing my steps cautiously, planting my resolve
Upon a grinding, crevassed sea of ice, beyond immense,
Cracking underneath my feet, arousing fascination
With motion sensed and understood, felt only in the soul
Ecstatic to be riding ancient snowstorms through the glare.

How does one reveal the spirit of a forest, huge and silent

Wrapping one within vast energy

Which soothes and strengthens
When a hiker settles on a rotting log, and travels inward,
Poised to find enlightenment exposed just momentarily
By whispered breezes, murmurings within the underbrush just barely
Hiding secrets one desires, but might be unprepared for.

I stood just feet from vicious mauling, adrenaline on fire,

Searching grizzly eyes for hints

That they’d warn of aggression.
They didn’t flare, I never blinked, just quickly flicked the shutter,
While he lunged wildly for salmon, gnawing on each flopping morsel,
Permitting me my stealthy crawl toward images imbued with power,
Allowing me a moment that will thrill me to my grave.

I can’t describe the dazzling brilliance on a ridge called Polychrome,

Where I scrambled up loose scree

On trails where Dall sheep graze and amble,
To stand in reverence deep within a grandeur most cannot conceive
Where jagged orange and burnt umber cliffs cut sharply down to emerald
Vegetation clinging to the braided rivers that meander
Infinitely further through a paradise than soaring eagles

Ever could set eyes upon in a lifetime of winged freedom.

I still saw wonders from the water, but tasted sea spray in my grin,

Delirious with our rough passage

Over seas that pounded me
With ocean’s power and it’s gifts, which floated past or arced in triumph
Through my vision for an instant, then to slice back out of view,
With the backdrop of huge glaciers calving with the crack of thunder,
Along a rocky coast where creatures fade back into endless forest.

Hiking, climbing, stalking wildlife, capturing their moods and struggles,

I became Alaska’s essence,

I was offered up it’s soul
To digest through dreams which linger, now absorbed as part of me-
Moose and orca, ptarmigan, wolves that sprang up for a glimpse,
Volcanic cones and huge Denali peaking through the smoky haze,
Settling on a wilderness which stretches to the Arctic Ocean.

They ask me why I didn’t choose banquet meals and shuffleboard,

And I just smile because words cannot answer

What is missing deep within their satisfaction
With what’s lost, when one embraces barriers that needn’t loom
Between joy’s vast experience and echoes in the soul
When living human beings give up living, just for comfort
Upon a ship where most are thankful to belly up to the buffet.

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

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This appears in a pre-2010 issue of cc&d magazine. Saddle-stitched issues are no longer printed, but you can requesting it “re-released” through amazon sale as a 6" x 9" ISBN# book! Email us for re-release to order.

This appears in a pre-2010 issue
of cc&d magazine.
Saddle-stitched issues are no longer
printed, but you can requesting it
“re-released” through amazon sale
as a 6" x 9" ISBN# book!
Email us for re-release to order.