Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GEO-BESTIARY: 14, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GEO-BESTIARY: 14, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: As a geezer one grows tired of the story
Last Line: And make your own little pyramids.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Aging; Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


As a geezer one grows tired of the story
of Sisyphus. Let that boulder stay
where it is and, by its presence,
exactly where it wished to be,
but then I'm old enough to have
forgotten what the boulder stood for?
I think of all of the tons of junk
the climbers have left up on Everest,
including a few bodies. Even the pyramids,
those imitation mountains, say to the gods,
"We can do it too." Despite planes
you can't get off the earth for long.
Even the dead meat strays behind, changing
shape, the words drift into the twilight
across the lake. I'm not bold enough
to give a poetry reading while alone
far out in the desert to a gathering
of saguaro and organ-pipe cactus
or listen to my strophes reverberate off a mountain
wall. At dawn I sat on a huge boulder
near Cave Creek deep in the Chiracahuas
and listened to it infer that it didn't want
to go way back up the mountain but liked
it near the creek where gravity bought
its passage so long ago. Everest told me
to get this crap off my head or stay at home
and make your own little pyramids.





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