Peace Mountain

 

Climbing takes a thousand steps, then
another thousand, then beyond counting.

Sometimes someone placed the stone steps

here for you, carried them from the valley

and set them firm for your feet to find.

Sometimes no one made a path for you,

so you follow where the deer stepped,

pushing through. Descending into war

is easy—a few short syllables in anger

or fear, and the killing begins. It is a fire

that feeds itself, hungry for a nation,

a city, a child. It burns the hands of

those who make it. To climb Peace

Mountain takes a thousand steps,

then a thousand more, then beyond

counting. The trick is to begin.

--Kim Stafford 

[Photo of Kirkjufell Mountain in Iceland].