仙能渡Shenandoah Mountains

Heaven-blocking Shenandoah elbows aside
The aquamarine arched over there states.
So complains many a Virginian bird
That cannot see Maryland clouds.

Up rises the pillared stillness of the woods
As down press the souls of the rocks,
Million-toned,ageless,and abstruse,
Whose architecture remains unweighed
Since the day when first they were made.

Twisting back to snatch from mid-air,
Writhingly, the dragon-textured rocks
We can clearly read. Down the broken cliffs
Run the sinews of Silurian Age, pre-historic
Records,open only to the birds.

Yet up climbs Spring, up rock-rooted beards,
Early Spring, a spoiled Indian princess,
That festoons the rugged mountain-face
With forsythias and azaleas.

Features of the mountains,features of Time.
features of divines remain unseen.
Yet up I trace where deer crosses and cloud passes,
Where once climbed the divines and now climbs Spring
And up with Spring must I climb.