To Be With You

by Dee Newman

On the steepest slope or the desert plain,
Whatever the scope, the scale or terrain,
Be it small and profound, a vast allure,
Safe and sound or ruggedly insecure,
In the cool of the night or the heat of the day,
Beneath sunlight or the milky-way,
Beyond the shore, the sea cliffs and caves
As the gulls soar over white-capped waves,
Off the asphalt beyond the tossed-debris
Where the Great Fault meets the Joshua Tree,
Among ancient pines older than history,
Gnarled shrines veiled in moonlight and mystery,
Along a wild remote alpine expanse,
Scenes of mountain goat and flowering plants,
Toward a towering quest of ice and snow,
Lit from the west with the evening’s glow,
To share a perspective, a point of view,
Ah, what I would give to be with you.