MATTERS OF FAITH MOUNTAIN NEWS

Children access spirit worlds because they live there, it’s theirs. They can also be taken there. The mountain, always sacred, is one of the places Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of, speaking in the city. Mountain top. One take with grand kids on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Ski. Listen. Pay attention. Wonder about it all, friends. Go out in good courage. Twelve minutes with Grandpa, two 11-year-old grandchildren, MLK,Jr, the Mountain, twin-tip skis, and the world that has been given to them.

MATTERS OF FAITH MOUNTAIN NEWS

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

        --Martin Luther King, Jr.     

          from I Have A Dream, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963

High Camp is where we go on skis.

The bathroom break, the microwave,

the mustard cups we fill with honey

and the honey we suck up

with stir straws. I find crosses

in window panes, window reflections,

and kids looking through railings

at people below. Dheezus and Sammie

chase flies clinging to windows

for warmth and light. This is

our place and why we ski.

Resting in a brown bag lodge.

Josh and Kate this day,

11-year old cousins who opened

this back country refuge

six years ago, at five.

It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

We have last night's pizza, Capri Sun,

Mandarin Orange cups in juice

and the 16 January 2017edition

of The New Yorker, so we can

read Jelani Cobb's article

on King in Talk of the Town.

Welcome to the Mountain.

Bob Marley sings

Tell the children the truth,

Tell the children the truth,

while Leonard Cohen cautions,

and you don't want to lie,

not to the young.

This is music made

from what we bring

and find falling

as the mountain falls,

skis turn and go into now,

snow new, recording promise

time with children.

Jim Bodeen

16-17 January 2017