UPON A MOUNTAIN

/ delphini510

In honour of Native Americans

I have had the great pleasure visiting United States a number of
times and although each journey has brought experiences of wonder and
excitement, there is one part of a journey that really gave me both
a physical and spiritual high.

Although I had spent a couple of days in Nashville and had the most 
fantastic time, being so happy there that I just wanted to stay – it was Smokey Mountains that stole my heart. 

I was unprepared for its beauty and grandeur and also how much of its
history I would feel and learn by watching, reading and listening.

This was for more than 1000 years the home of mainly the Native 
American tribe, the Cherokees. Now it is America’s most visited 
National Park and it is still free to travel in there. I was lucky as there were no crowds there during the visit. That brought home the stillness so much vividly. 
 

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This visit did naturally bring forth some poems and the one below started as a hum during the days up on these mountains. So really it could be a lyric or a poem as I was humming along whilst writing.
This was a first anything like it happened to me.

lone pine

Upon a Mountain

As I stood upon a mountain high
with a feeling I never known before,
Elation, awe and wonder filled my soul
as tears spilled from brim-filled heart.

Before me lay deep valleys, lofty mountains soared,
a chain of beauty and grandeur quietening mind.
Trying to comprehend that of this I was a part,
Felt so small and yet I flew;

Knowing a love pure and true.

On the bluff stood the most lonely Pine
or so I thought,
but it was strong and filled with joy
As each day life filled every atom and cell,

knowing itself in calmness and bliss
belonging to these mountains where it grew,
Loving them unquestioningly, unreserved.

Quietly I sat down by the Pine
leaning gently against its old trunk,
drinking in the beauty of majestic strength,
Until total love filled my every pore;

Feeling this was more than I could ask
or seldom known before.

© miriam ivarson

61 thoughts on “UPON A MOUNTAIN”

  4. A beautiful poem about a beautiful part of the world. The Smokies are magical. The town of Cherokee celebrates the history of a proud people, once the stewards (they never considered themselves the owners) of a great land. Thank you for posting.

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  5. Thank you Peter for your lovely answer. You are right, these mountains are magical and your comment about the Cherokee seeing themselves as stewards is very true.
    The fact that Sequoyah created the first written alphabet in Cherokee is beautiful.
    Miriam

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    • Thank you Miriam, yes, great nature inspires like that and I know you agree.:)
      These mountains are vast and just seem to flow on. The mist swirling between them is quite ethereal. Oh, it was nice seeing you there😊 , dreamily joining in.
      Miriam

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    • Radhika, you are right about nature and maybe I was euphoric.., I certainly felt transported. Luckily there are so many places on Earth that will give us this joy if we but look.
      Thank you.
      Miriam

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  8. Visiting the Smoky Miuntains does fill your heart with awe of the Creator’s unlimited capacity to gift us with beauty. Thanks for participating in that creative experience with your beautiful poem.

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    • Thank you Bernadette for this beautiful comment. Are we all given the gift to create but often too hesitant to dare open the floodgates.
      As to participating, it is a joy. I am sure you feel so too.
      Miriam

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  9. I don’t know the area, Miriam but your poem certainly helps brings me a sense of its beauty and power. As you said in your message to me, it is strange that we both have chosen today to contemplate in verse the stillness which nature can bring.

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    • Thank you Roland for your much valued comment. Geographically Smokey mountains straddle the borders of Tennessee and North Carolina but the main thing is that you could feel their beauty and power.

      Yes, you used the wonderful Lake District to give this deep sense of nature and peace.
      Beautiful planet we all live on
      Miriam

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  10. Loved this poem Miriam and these moments are so few that we need to capture and cherish them. Thank you for sharing and providing a beautiful space to escape.

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  11. Thank you Davy D for your beautiful comment and yes, how vital it is that we cherish these moments of wonder and deep joy.
    I am so glad to share and you are welcome to this space to escape.😊 .
    Miriam

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  12. Miriam, Thank you for the lovely poem which brought me back in time to college and the many summers I spent in those majestic mountains. With boyhood friends, hiking and sleeping out in the wood, we were so idealistic in our thinking. At one time I even wanted to be a park ranger. Time and space changes us but its good to know the memories of bygone days still live deep within. jc

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    • Thank you for your kind comment Jc and so glad you liked my poem.
      We all have dreams and sadly we to often give up on them although they might be perfectly suited to us.
      Park Ranger sounds an excellent job to me! Glad to have refreshed your dreams.
      Miriam

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  13. What a beautiful poem and how lovely that it came to you in music. Music (rhythm and sound) is part of nature and part of poetry. I think you tapped into something special. There are places in the world that take our breath away. I’m so glad you had that experience. 🙂

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    • Thank you for your wonderful answer Diana, you are right, music is rhythm and sound and poetry is rhythm and sound. Didn’t think of that but yes, I do feel that something came over me at the time.
      May we have our breath taken away quite often.😊 .
      🦋 Miriam

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  17. Thank you for your beautiful comment. Tears of joy are good for us and hopefully you saw the beauty too. Yes, it made a big impact.
    I am glad you liked the photos as they were chosen to suit the post.
    bless
    miriam

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  20. Beautiful.
    Your words inspired by the majestic Smokey Mountains.
    Your sensitive soul and wonder all captured in a single poem.
    Thanks for sharing your gift of poetry that allowed me to travel back to this wonderful place.

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  21. Wow Babs, thank you for your generous comment. It is a pleasure seeing you here again. 😊.it is a blessing to have an open heart as you can experience the riches of the world deeper. I am sure you know that.

    I do take it from your comment that you have been there and also loved it.
    🐿🦋❤️ miriam

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    • Yes indeed. It is a beautiful place that stirs my soul. Thank you again for your poem that allowed for a mini vacation 🙂 You are an artist with words my friend. What a wonderful gift. Please keep writing and sharing.

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  22. Wow! A beautiful and moving post, Miriam! I was immediately struck by the stunning statue and I’m so glad you included the plaque of how it was made from one giant sequoia- amazing. The teardrops stand out and you can sense the profound sorrow.

    Thank you for sharing your wonderful poem; your deep inner peace and calm resonates with the reader…the location is out of this world, with staggering views which you relay perfectly. It is not often one gets the opportunity to feel ‘Until total love filled my every pore;’! ❤️

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    • Annika, thank you again for your wonderful words and in depth review
      of my post. The statue can’t but make an impact on anyone who sees it.
      It is beautiful, full of emotion and also an incredible work of art.

      I am so deeply glad that you felt so much empathy with the feeling I am trying to convey in the poem. Sometimes strong emotive events like that will change your thinking profoundly. Every time it happens to me I know the light gets brighter inside.
      🦋❤️ miriam

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  23. A beautiful and emotive poem Miriam. I particularly liked the lonesome pine as it stands there in splendid isolation, king of all it surveys. A survivor of ever I saw one.
    Mike

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  24. Thank you so much Mike and I am s glad your emotions were moved.
    The Lone Pine as I call that picture does indeed seem so at ease with all
    it sees. I like your observation about it being a survivor.😊 .
    Miriam

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  26. First, a warm welcome to mywindow.
    Thank you Peter for your warm comment and yes, it was a special experience. Like you I was and am very taken with the beauty and conception of this statue. It just goes to show what man can create.
    Miriam

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  31. Love this, Miriam! I think you’ve done a wonderful job capturing that elusive sensation of wonder that comes from being witness to a vast natural beauty. It is overwhelming, and I’ve experienced it a number of times. Every time I come close to shedding tears because of it. Thank you for sharing such a beautiful poem!

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  32. Julie, thank you for your generous comment. It makes me happy.
    I was so glad to hear that you feel just as overwhelmed when faced with
    natural beauty and felt tears in your eyes. The heart ” brimmeath over” as the
    old saying goes.
    bless 😊🦋
    Miriam

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  34. Thank you Michael for your positive comment.
    I do believe you and your wife would find this very fulfilling.
    The museum is excellent and you are quite awe struck once you gone through it all.
    To then go and see the mountains was probably what did me in emotionally.

    miriam

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  40. Thank you for the beautiful comment. I am so glad you liked my words about the Smokey Mountain. Seeing that you have a wonderful National Park yourselves I feel honoured. Will study it further but saw the birds were magnificent.
    Miriam

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  42. Yes Sharon, I was a lucky one to see these mystic mountains and their grand beauty. You are very kind to say it was an honour to the National Park; the honour was mine and beware, there are more poem hidden in my files.😊
    Thank you
    Miriam

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  43. I love the emotions that flow through this post Miriam.The serenity and the joy that nature evokes is so well entrenched in your thoughts… “drinking in the beauty of majestic strength, Until total love filled my every pore;” Beautifully articulated! Stay blessed with such an apt usage of words. 🙂

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  44. Thank you Balroop for this beautiful comment, it sings along with the mountains.:) we can all experience this deep joy wherever we take time to look with stillness and let nature..be it mountains, oceans, lakes, forests, valleys, fields, flowers, bees………😊 Sink in and see their deep beauty.
    blessings to you too
    miriam

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  45. It almost feels as if you were at one with the natural surroundings – that an onlooker might have seen you and believed that you were part of all that you surveyed and not separate in any way. That’s the feeling I came away with Miriam – and in a way we are all one and that is the beauty of it all. I hope this makes sense. 🙂

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    • Marie, you make a lot of sense. You are so right, I relly felt love for it all and an extraordinary belonging. I am so deeply glad you felt this truth too.
      I try to carry this with me every day and see the beauty even when it isn’t as obvious as on that mountain.
      😊💕

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