Just below the tree-line
bright green flames
of conifers’ new growth
Melting snow and wind
have scoured all down
to exoskeleton
leaving a thousand words for rock
composed of consonants
jutting into crisp air
Approaching the summit the sound
in your head is the wind
taking place of thought
Glacial glare
alternates with lunar scenes
as clouds flit across the sun
To say the view
is of mountains and rivers without end
is to say the present moment
where each breath each step
is brokered against thin air and gravity
is to be cherished
—
Donald Levering has two poetry books forthcoming in 2012: The Number of Names from Sunstone Press and Sweeping the Skylight from Finishing Line. He is a former NEA poetry fellow and a featured poet in the Academy of American Poets Online Forum. More information is available at: donaldlevering.com
200 New Mexico Poems 
I wanted to mention some favorite lines but there are too many of them, so I won’t. It’s a vivid bracing poem.