If You Should Need

Run away to the mountains

Into the crisp north mountain air

Leave it all behind to crumble

When it's all too much to bear

Run away to the mountains

In the gloaming starlit light

Feel the life close in about you

As dusk fades into night.

Run away to the mountains

When the world’s too much to bear

When you feel as if you’re nothing,

And too strung out to care

Feel the strength of stone beneath you

And the wind upon your face

Hear the songs that place can teach you,

touch the paths that you may trace.

And when you’ve lived up on the mountain

Alone in the budding dawn

Take courage from the life that grows

There amongst cold stone.

Run away to the mountains

To find their cold embrace

Touch the melting glaciers 

And feel the tears upon your face.

When the world feels like it's breaking

And all that's left is song

A eulogy, a dying grace

For a future that fades with dawn.

Know that it's enough to try

To push and curse, 

And perhaps to cry;

Return then, from the mountain,

 And know that…

It's enough to try.

By Atticus Cummings May 7, 2022

Photo: Atticus Cummings, Gokyo Ri Nepal 2023