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Kaaterskill Falls
by Ken HarnischWe climbed the rocks and scramble
Not like the mountain goats we once were
But three ageing, tired men
And as I sighed and tried
To catch a breath already flown
Jimmy’s words from earlier
Came floating in my ears.
“You come to your senses yet?”
Well of course I hadn’t
Once latched onto an idea
My mind draws maps
And makes idle plans to see
It through, with no date imprinted
Into stone
Somewhere in a musty book
I had read about the timeless
Majesty of Kaaterskill Falls
How the ages, and this modern
World, mad with Twitter,
Had had such great fortune
As to have left this place unmarred.
There are dreams you have, and those
You live. We piled into a RAV 4 and drove
More than all the way to Albany.
We stepped out into sunlight
And watched the fog curling
Below our feet
In the endless dome of hills.
They scrambled upwards;
I followed one stone and twig
At a time, the camera dangling
From my neck. I was the
Journalist, the scribe.
My eye was going to be the one
To behold and capture
So those we left behind
Could see why
We climbed and wheezed
And clapped when at last
The falls came into view.
Awesome beauty knows no words
Sometimes.
Even a poet’s.
The Canon clicked and clicked
The senses Jimmy thought I had lost
Returned
With a flourish
And on the way back home
We planned another excursion
To a place as yet unnamed.
06/01/2009 Posted on 06/01/2009
Copyright © 2025 Ken Harnisch
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Kris Mara on 06/01/09 at 09:44 PM you've taken us with you on this adventure...I was completely drawn in with that first stanza -- and you kept me with you all the way through -- you have a way of doing that... |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 06/01/09 at 11:14 PM I'm hoping for a photo anytime now. I liked the whole process of wanting to go and the pain of getting there. "The senses Jimmy thought I had lost
Returned
With a flourish" - I liked the resolution in these lines also.
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| Posted by David R Spellman on 06/02/09 at 09:38 PM Have hiked these same falls while camping nearby at North-South campground. Indeed it is a great pleasure and needed respite to still find such places in this "settled" world. Nicely relayed to us all here. |
| Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 06/06/09 at 09:35 PM Excellent poem Ken. Descriptively great reminder for anyone who has climbed or yet to climb. I recently did a similar trip...and climb, fortunately not as far as you seemed to drive. In Movember, my current girlfriend and I rented a cottage in Quebec about an hours drive away, and then climbed the Luskville chut (French for waterfall). An escarpment that rises above the Ottawa River; spectacular view, so I can certainly empathize with your experience and poem. |
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