"Mountain Day" by W.S. Merwin

Photo by VegaStar Carpentier Photographie

With one dear friend we go up the highest mountain

thousands of feet into the birdless snow

and listen to our breaths in the still air

for a long time beside the observatories

later we stretch out on the dark crumbled

lava slope looking

west at the sun yellowing the clouds below

then go down past the wild cows to the cabin

getting there just before sunset

and eat by the fire laughing at what we have

forgotten to bring

afterward we come out and lie

braided together looking up

at Cassiopeia over the foothill.

"Mountain Day" by W.S. Merwin from Collected Poems: 1952-1993. © The Library of America, 2013.