A man, calm and able
Ascends a mountain with natural ease
Bound by neither reluctance nor ache
A climb that began with the soil—down low;
Not a soul to accompany but his own
Breathing nothing but perception and the air.

He bypasses mortal traps of roots midair
Pouncing up jagged earth in a coat of sable.
Midway, his strength was already overthrown
Most of his energy the mountain had seized
The man knew he was forced to proceed slow
and adjusted his technique for his own sake.

As the man continued his laborious uptake
Ahead approached a lively elderly pair
Who in corresponding unison, with mingled glow
And a harmony that streamed undeniably
flew down the mountain like a breeze
as if being carried by their spirits alone.

The man paused, dazed and windblown
Enlivened and proud of earned achievements, but in the wake
of a glance forward, nothing could appease
his regret for embarking on such a wearisome affair
But the vitality he had witnessed whispered to enable
His progress of prosperity onward, escape of deterioration below.

In time the peak arrived, bringing a revitalizing flow
Ponds of glass were fragmented with stepping stones
Faint skies nestled in glimmers of golden fable.
Omnipresent and constantly awake,
The wind sent chilled melody through the man’s hair
and the unbroken land beneath surged with exceptional nobodies.

The reluctant climb down allowed gravity to tease
to bait, to torment, to counterblow:
a malicious force striving to impair.
But the man repelled and wrestled the unknown,
taking a cautious step and nothing forsake
Progressing more and more rapidly as he grew stable.

As ease and misery intertwined, the man discovered he was able,
though disposition plunged low and trouble came with aches,
to breathe air and understand the world was his own.