James Peak by Way of St. Mary's Glacier

We hop over stones and rocks

till we arrive at the base of

Saint Mary’s Glacier looming

above dark waters of a tarn lined

with sweet-smelling spruce where

we ascend the trail to the glacier’s

edge to take out our poles and

traverse the soft snow over ice

back and forth as we enjoy the

squeaking marmots amid tundra

blossoms all along the sides.

We can hear the gurgling of

a stream deep beneath the ice

wearing away the melting glacier

until next September’s snow.

At the top we soon espy the peak

we want to climb laced with

layers of very white snow-pack,

but a dark sharp angled ridgeline

remains bare for us to climb

ever upward into the sky with

numbing gusts of wind

until we stand atop James Peak

overlooking the glacier far below

and all the Front Range from Longs

to Evans and Bierstadt sparkling

in their own luminescence.