Poem for a Friend Killed on Mt. Evans

He died
A single purpose
Fastened in his eyes,
Unfaltering amid
The noise of history.

Full-nerved, flame-eyed,
And tendon-tense;
Unmindful of the gathering days,
Immune against the taint and taunt
Of circumstance's cunning.

May mind accept its final form
Where ice obtrudes like rock;
Grant vision's end to apprehend
All substance and illusion.

For all those dead
From ice and snow.
For all those dead
From rock,
For all those dead
On flowering peaks,
Give praise, give praise;
And peace.

—J.D.F.