A friend quotes Cheryl Strayed…

And so I climbed the hill in darkness.
And waited for first light.
And climbed again at sundown
And scampered down in night.

I packed a paperback Neruda
a worn chapbook of Plath
I studied every fallen leaf
that fell along my path.

I danced to drumbeats
on the square,
and sipped the sweetest rum,
the sticky scent that filled the air,
expanded in my lungs,

the flames soared high,
cracked and whipped
in jubilant wild plume,
above the rollicking
chants of joy,
a brilliant honey moon.

Like a wolf I hunted her,
deep into the night,
wore a worried haggard trail
in search of beauty’s sight.

Exhausted I fell sleeping
on a bed of grass,
a stream beside me
trickled dreams,
fleeting fast,
intimations
of an infinite love,

an intimacy
unsurpassed,
which like all
things infinite,
but for the shortest
glorious moment
lasts.