When I first saw Shasta this morning, coming in late
the previous night,
the first time ever to gaze upon the mountain from the road
that slowly winds upward
to the greater encounter with it,
how obviously, compellingly majestic the sheer Presence
of it—
And in its Presence
mesmerizingly appearing so close;
from town, so front & center, Shasta was there;
and remarkably, how pure light gray shining in its countenance
it was,
only patches of snow are upon it this first day of my visit,
and will be the last day of the summer’s rainless season,
last day before the winter white veil spreads over it,
come tomorrow.
The first rain the forecasters say comes in this night
will certainly be snow I hear upon the mountain tomorrow.
How,
in Shasta’s towering so much higher the ridge
that’s completely tree covered, bordering up against it,
Shasta reveals its eminence—
It is a syzygy of a mountain, male & female represented
—Shastina right beside it—,
a mountain perfectly evolved to address the higher nature of us—
A communicative mountain, it is already apparent to me,
for already today, my first day upon seeing Shasta,
its Presence speaks to the soul of me.
October 16, 2004