The Song Mt. Tamalpais Sings
This is the last place. There is nowhere else to go.
……………… Human movements,
……………… but for a few,
……………… are Westerly.
……………… Man follows the Sun.
This is the last place. There is nowhere else to go.
……………… Or follows what he thinks to be the
……………… movement of the Sun.
……………… It is hard to feel it, as a rider,
……………… on a spinning ball.
This is the last place. There is nowhere else to go.
……………… Centuries and hordes of us,
……………… from every quarter of the earth,
……………… now piling up,
……………… and each wave going back
……………… to get some more.
This is the last place. There is nowhere else to go.
……………… “My face is the map of the Steppes,”
……………… she said, on this mountain, looking West.
……………… My blood set by singing it,
……………… to the old tunes,
……………… Irish, Still,
……………… among these Oaks.
by Lew Welch
from Ring of Bone
Grey Fox Press, 1979