At Bear Lake                                    6
      ~Rick McElhany

How easily these popcorn-ball clouds
reach and caress the summit -
as easily as I step onto this slab of rock.

There is a coldness so much deeper
than that of this unwelcoming stone;
there is a chill beyond that
of this thin mountain air.
Its clarity brings a future I cannot embrace -
and yet,
a vision so real - so certain -
failed attempts at the summit,
piled up over the years.
This is a haunting clarity -
a dangerous certainty,
that must be denied.

I search among this string of visions
for the softness, the warmth,
that lies unseen under this stone -
sift among imaginings
for dormant reflections of this lake,
seeing only the cold unyielding beauty of its white coat.

I yield to the power of the unattained, the unseen,
as they draw surrender from my shaking frame,
in waves of bitter release.
I stand, looking at a brine-filtered reach.
I turn
for now, I descend.

 Hiroshige Utagawa (Japanese, 1797-1858)
Hakone: The Lake (Kosui) ca. 1833-34
The 53 Stations of the Tokaido (Tôkaidô Gojûsan-Tsugi no Uchi) no. 11
Color woodcut. Publisher: Hôeidô (seal, left margin) (and Senkakudô?)

Original digital image copyright
Davison Art Center
Wesleyan University
prior permission from the DAC required for any subsequent use.