John of the Mountains

(for John Muir, also known as “John of the Mountains”)

 

 

John of the Mountains rose up in his youth,

wandered the coastline and the countryside.

Armed with poetry books by Robert Burns,

"Auld Lang Syne"* to Scotland changed not his stride.

 

An ocean apart, settled on a Wisconsin farm.

Botany class sent him flying to the woods.

Money scarce, he worked at a wagon shop.

With machines, his brain proved to be shrewd.

 

A sharp tool slipped and struck his eyes.

Six weeks confined to a darkened room.

Day or night he could not tell.

John of the Mountains met his doom.

 

The bitter woe turned out to be sweet.

Again, he saw the world in a new light.

God nearly killed him to teach a lesson.

Listen to conscience, true to his own sight.

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Kentucky, Florida, Cuba, there he roamed,

wildest, least trodden roads he took.

In California, he found his true love in Yosemite.

Cliffs, waterfalls, a lifetime book.

 

John of the Mountains built a cabin near the creek.

For years, he listened to the river's talk.

A cup, a loaf of bread into the hinterland.

A copy of Emerson under the moon and nighthawk.

 

Bears, deer, bighorn sheep knew him well.

Precipice, rock face, mud and slough.

Glaciers to explore, mountains to climb.

He wrote and lived the life only he knew.

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed him a prophet.

Sun shines in his eyes, stars twinkle in his dream.

The Mountains are Calling**; leaves, trees talk to him.

Running water chatting through the meadow and stream.

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God shined his destiny for these three nights.

Theodore Roosevelt came to town.

The President camped out alone with him.

John of the Mountains didn’t let the world down.

 

The duo set off to camp in the back country.

By the campfire, they talked late into the night,

woke up in the snowfalls of Glacier Point.

Two great minds synced to do things right.

 

He insisted we hear nature’s call.

The voices of his unashamed emotions.

He revered wild nature over human culture.

Confronted mankind’s conceit with devotions.

 

John of the Mountains, saint of the wilderness.

The world will look back to his prime.

Forests, glaciers, mountains he rediscovered.

The way he changed how we see nature in our time.

 

 

*A song by Robert Burns.

**Subtitle of the book “The Mountains of California,”

by John Muir.

 

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