Rock Climbing in Red Rocks

Integrating two of the things I enjoy the most doing—rock climbing and photography.

Photo and Poem contribution : Calla Paleczny

I wish I could climb to my Beloved

feel my toes launch off of the highest piece of rock

and be lifted into the firmament

my rope won’t hold me to the earth

for I will see that it has never been there

each clip

each bolt

was a generous gift to comfort me in my human-ness

anguish is submersion in the dust of crumbling rock

it is distance from the melodies of “all songs are from the King”

it is not welcome, nay not possible in the aether of “trust in God”

not found on the mountain I slowly climb named “in thy soul of love, build thou a fire”

Grace has joined me on this mountain

whispering secrets into my ear “listen daughter of the kingdom”

coaxing me to slowly empty the seams of my garments of pebbles

that I have sewn in as excuses

I have been nudged lovingly with pockets in the rock for my fingers

small ledges for my toes “climb on, Kinglet”

footholds have been felled from under my feet

when I linger too long in places where I cannot stay but am unwilling

to leave

I have wet the rock with bitter tears

that were dried once again by the winds of

“graciously bestow a pair of heavenly wings unto each of these fledglings”

and I have climbed on

with these wings

my Beloved will not care for the excuses I made on this journey, nor for the numerousness of my failures yet I will face what I have done here on the cliff of

“if there be no pain, this journey will never end.”

my hands will wear and knot from the rock,

even as I journey through the “oceans of grandeur”

my feet will become agile and trustworthy,

even as I am dismantled, dispersed and absorbed into “poverty and absolute nothingness”

though all the while— roped to the earth

my soul will soar

beyond blue skies

beyond winter storms

beyond the “world of time”

dancing in the world of “perpetuity” or perhaps even “eternity”

and there I will be incorruptibly

happy

free

beyond

This beautiful poem was written by my friend Calla Paleczny