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Hangerlessbolt
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 28, 2006 - 06:59am PT
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A Perfect Summer Night
When all the work days
Blend into a haze
And reality is nowhere near
That's when I remember
In early September
The Josh nights are warm and clear
And I'm not alone
I pick up the phone
and issue an eager proposal
A partner in need
Is a partner indeed
"If your leading I'm at your disposal"
An evening run
Under a setting sun
A burger and some fries
Gear in the pack
Thrown on my back
Watch the full moon rise
Desert floor
Relaxation's door
It's here I feel at home
Long shadowy trees
Cactus at my knees
To the base of the climb we roam
I start the climb
With safety in mind
I check out my harness and knot
Headlamp lights my partner
He know's he's smarter
He lets me lead...(a lot!)
In the first few moves
I focus on my shoes
Fancy footwork on thin face
I clip the first bolt
Pull a bight of rope
Thinking how blessed is this place
Only the moon and bright stars
No people and no cars
Two of us on this dark wall
I get to the crux
My partner wishes me luck
With tensed muscles I fight a fall
I pull all the moves
Thank 5.10 for the shoes
I clip into the bolts with my runner
I take in the slack
Staring down into black
Hard to believe we're at Josh in the summer
From far below
Comes a headlight's dim glow
A lonely growing light
Hanging far above
This place that I love
A perfect summer night
-Hangerlessbolt & Toobigtoclimb
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Nov 28, 2006 - 08:47am PT
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One nut, two nuts,
Red nuts, Blue Nuts!
Three nuts four nuts,
Five nuts, more nuts!
Have you ever done a climb,
On a lark,
After dark,
In the park?
Apoplogies to Dr. Suess, the great american poet.
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feelio Babar
Trad climber
Sneaking up behind you...
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Nov 28, 2006 - 10:33am PT
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I will not cam oh Sam I am,
This passive gear is fine!
I'll save that gear,
till full of fear,
that's when I plug in mine!
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Nov 28, 2006 - 11:08am PT
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Shades of Robert Service, Hangerless and Toobig.
And fun stuff Dirt and Babar.
Thanks!
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KenD
Trad climber
Palo Alto, CA
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Nov 28, 2006 - 12:24pm PT
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A struggle on the cliff face
Tiny figures viewed far below
When you have not yet been up there
Many a regret
But once there and homeward bound
How commonplace it all looks
Cliff face gleams in the moonlight
Mountains are once more mountains
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 28, 2006 - 01:49pm PT
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Verge
Full, quaking and anxious
Of owls
Of hawks
Soaring souls beckon the absolute
Frontiers of abundant enclosures
Amid the sound
Of crashing boulders
A misty sky below
As tears fly skyward.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 13, 2007 - 12:48am PT
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I thought we should prolong this thread. Hopefully there'll be other contributions - tis a season to write poetry, methinks.
dirtineye's entry from the "Woes with Toes" thread today:
Woes with toes and life's not fair,
And doctors often do not care.
So many times I would have dared.
But toes got in my way.
I've looked at feet from both sides now,
and still it seems that still somehow
it's life's illusions I recall,
I really don't know toes at all.
And here's one from EKat, from Crimpie's "A Happy Thread" last summer:
Cross country ski poles
My ropes and my ice ax
Tincture of Benzion
And all of my backpacks
Nuts and hexentrics with bright colored slings
These are a few of my favorite things!
Avalanche beacons
My skins and my skinnies
Klisters and hard wax
And skiin' with Blinny
Takin' a header when snow sticks and clings
These are a few of my favorite things
When the slope breaks
And you're swimmin'
when you're hurtin' bad
Just simply remember your favorite things
And then you won't feeeeeeeeeeeeeeel. . . . so bad!
Anyone else?
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 13, 2007 - 01:12am PT
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Here's an excerpt from one that I like, which isn't directly about climbing, but might be inspiring, if a bit bleak:
"Mind must be the stronger, heart the bolder,
courage must be the greater, as our might lessens."
It's from "The Battle of Maldon", one of the first recorded poems in what eventually became English. About events in 991 - see http://faculty.uca.edu/~jona/texts/maldon.htm for a full translation.
This could be something fun for winter nights - I have ideas.
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oldtopangalizard
Social climber
ca
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Jan 13, 2007 - 02:14am PT
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I once knew a climber named Smitty
Who tied all his knots rather shitty
One day on the wall
He cried in a fall
Oh sh#t my knot slipped, what a pity
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Trusty Rusty
Social climber
Tahoe area
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Jan 13, 2007 - 02:23am PT
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"Dammit Schief, I thought you brought the hardwear"
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Trusty Rusty
Social climber
Tahoe area
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Jan 13, 2007 - 02:28am PT
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I once knew a climber named McNaught
who tied an insecure butterfly knot
he screamed as he fell
a magnificent yell:
"My God I'll be hardly a spot"
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ec
climber
ca
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Jan 13, 2007 - 05:39am PT
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Please forgive any familiarity to any previous lyrics...
Just a Saturday climb, so special,
'Got cams of blue and gold,
Ain't good for nothin'...
Run out sixty-feet on the rope...
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Jan 13, 2007 - 09:57am PT
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Onward, onward, half a pitch onward,
Up onto the climb o death went the 6 morons.
Ours is not to reason why,
Ours is but to climb and die.
I'm too lazy to drag out the whole thing but there's a start.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Jan 13, 2007 - 10:24am PT
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Genuine poetry is too hard to do unless you're a specialist. Why not take the tact of the recent "Comedy Issue" of Poetry Magazine. One gem started: "The fish were jumping in the f*#king pond."
That's an angle I think we can work with . . .
JL
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Lee
Mountain climber
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Jan 13, 2007 - 03:11pm PT
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Now and Never
Across the starry, windswept sky,
The palest hues of dawn creep by,
Through crunch of snow and huff of breath,
The omnipresent smite of death,
From craggy peaks so sharp and near,
Regales the thinning atmosphere,
With promise of a view so fine,
I must ascend and make it mine.
Now far below I'll spy my camp,
Ajust my boots and don my lamp,
Down endless slopes I'll lightly prance,
Yet pausing turn a backwards glance,
To marvel at the summit gained,
Now grimly cold and twilight stained,
And dream of other peaks I've climbed,
If only- ah, I had the time.
Written after an extended trip to the Sierra's Palisades
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David Nelson
climber
San Francisco
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Jan 13, 2007 - 03:27pm PT
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I can't believe that no one complimented Karl on his poem! Karl, that was killer! Laughed a ton.
This poem is not climbing related, but written by me and offered to any of the ST crowd who like strong coffee:
Cowboy Coffee (just click link below)
http://www.davidlnelson.md/cowboy_coffee.htm
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 13, 2007 - 03:30pm PT
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I suggest that any poetry about climbing, or that is climbing-related, find a home on this thread. Not just poems by climbers.
Wilfrid Noyce, an accomplished British climber in the 1950s, was something of a poet and intellectual. He was on the 1953 Everest expedition, and wrote what was then the highest poem ever written. (Perhaps it still is? Not counting astro-poets, anyway.) It was written at about 7,800 metres, and is titled "The South Col".
"Great hill above
And cloud below;
Reckless of love
The fast winds blow.
But all between
Is space beyond dead;
Spirits unseen
Here make their bed
In blackened rock-rift
And ice rubbed bare,
Crusted snow-drift
That blizzards tear.
Long ago
These were the same,
Never small, never slow,
Never soft, never tame.
What are men here?
What have they done?
A heap of rags here,
Yellow and brown."
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Jan 13, 2007 - 10:45pm PT
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By former Rainier Chief Ranger, Clark Schurman(1939). Thanks to Dee Moliner for keeping this jewel alive.
Last campfires never die,
And you and I on separate ways to Life’s December,
Will dream by this last fire,
And have This Mountain to remember.
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