Nature, A Being In Itself

• Elsa Erminia Huber, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2015

Up through the stark, grey, burnt trees we climb...
Then light brings rainbows, and lush, green, glistening leaves
That are beautiful, bewitching and tempting, so on we go.
We stumble along the ridge, shivering in the chill, biting rain,
Soaked to the skin, the gale turning our hands to ice.
Thick walls of fog steal our eyes and the breath from our lungs,
And murders of crows follow and croak their mocking cries.
Yet when the clouds are swept away, we look upon blue lakes,
Rivers winding like snakes and the beginnings of the Snowy...
Great, wind-cut spines of pale stone brood atop the mountains,
And shards of that rock lie in the valley below,
As if God's hand has shattered them and cast them down.
We stand at the summit, above the vast earth,
Under endless sky.
The descent is one of sore feet, shaky legs and runny noses,
But we have felt the wonder of walking in Kosciuszko's domain.