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. 
 

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.

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