for Sean O'Grady
who dislikes dedications a lot
When David and I made the top
of the Matterhorn
you were already there--
the only man I ever saw charge
up the side of a mountain.
“Isn’t this great?” you yelled
and we all laughed, took pictures,
found the register
and recorded our feat.
Not a minute later
a white butterfly fluttered up
the side we’d just scaled
and circled twice around your head
but you were the last to see it
turning always so it was behind your head
until finally there it was
floating back down the other side.
Then we just looked around.
I remember reading what the head monk
told Snyder years ago:
“You only climb a mountain
to see what’s around;
only a fool wants to stay up there.”
But I can see
no one here is in a particular hurry
to start our long descent.
Eric Paul Shaffer is author of seven books of poetry, including Even Further West; A Million-Dollar Bill; Lāhaina Noon; Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen; and Portable Planet. More than 500 of his poems are published in America and around the world. Shaffer received Hawai‘i’s 2002 Elliot Cades Award for Literature, 2006 and 2019 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Book Awards, and 2009 James M. Vaughan Award for Poetry. Shaffer teaches at Honolulu Community College.
Featured image Matterhorn Peak , by Jeff P CC BY 2.0
