Poem: "Highway to the Glaciers" by Verna Cole Mitchell
Highway to the Glaciers
by Verna Cole Mitchell
In memory do I recall
Pictures, painted on my heart
As we traveled to the top
Of Canada's Glacier Highway.
Two rivers meet and travel side by side
Til finally, they merge.
White water races sunlight
Down rugged canyon sides.
Treacherous rocks,
Jutting from swift streams,
Await unwary rafters.
Trees, like an old man's beard,
Stubble the mountainside.
Sand villages of wind's design
Appear to be deserted.
Trains chug along tunnel trestles
Through granite walls.
Hills of slag stand and wait
For winter's icy hand to grip the roads.
A tiny green church nestles prayerfully
Deep inside a green valley.
An antlered buck stands tall
Against a sagebrush landscape.
Communities of brilliant waterfalls
Cascade with a roaring rush.
Big-horned sheep families
Nimbly traverse jagged cliffs.
Mountain goats share the highway
With caravans of cars,
Loaded logging trucks
And out-of-breath cyclists.
Beyond pink-tufted plants
And carpets of dainty white flowers,
Hardy hikers climb steep trails.
Mountains, sculpted by ice floe,
Form the backdrop
For quaint little towns.
Poem from Word Tapestry, a book of poetry by Verna Cole Mitchell.
