Elizabeth Cunningham

in the mountains

I went to the mountain range
called Dawn Snake
sinuous ridges running
south-north, cliffs facing east
 
I lay down on a rock
not long after noontide
cool air, fierce sun’s heat
everywhere water wearing
 
away stone with drip and
rush. The mountain said:
I hold time in my bones
I remember my shaping
 
I remember all the life
that’s blown over my surface
burrowed into my hollows
— young fleeting one, rest
 
 
 
 
 
Elizabeth Cunningham is best known for The Maeve Chronicles, a series of award-winning novels featuring a feisty Celtic Magdalen who is no one’s disciple. She lives in New York State’s Hudson Valley. The above poem describes a day in the Shawangunk Mountains. She is a Fellow of the Black Earth Institute.