The Mountains of Never

 

I went to the mountains of Never, which flourish their peaks for the moon,

white as the wrist of a lady, white as a fountain of may,

and the journey lasted forever, although it was over too soon,

for the mountains of Never are nearer, and farther, than away.

 

At the mountains I met a lady whose wrist was as white as the snows,

who sat with her white face lifted, blankened and blind, to the east;

I sat and watched her eyelids as a thousand moons arose,

and slowly the snows on her shoulders, flake by flake, increased.

 

Finally, over her face, there was only a hillock of white,

the white of the mountains of Never, that flourish their peaks for the moon.

So I turned to the hills and valleys that ranged beyond my sight

and sat with my white face lifted, still, and still, as stone.