Roped to the Sky
Devils Tower rises 1267 feet above Belle Fourche River, Wyoming.Photo by Richard F. Fleck.
Massive bear-clawed
columns rise into
the sky peppered
with roped climbers
working their way
ever upward some
eight hundred feet
above lodgepole pines
laced with prayer
flags fluttering in
a spirit wind. Such a
mass of sacred rock
gives testimony to the
very forces of creation
where puffy clouds drift
across the western skies.