For They Had Crossed The Mountains

This poem was shown to me by my friend Carol Cuminale. It was written about the Lewis and Clark expedition and more recently adapted for Western States. Thank you Carol!

What they had done,

what they had seen,

heard, felt, feared…

the places, the sounds,

the colors, the cold,

the darkness, the emptiness,

the bleakness, the beauty.

Till they died,

this stream of memory

would set them apart,

if imperceptibly

to anyone but themselves,

from everyone else.

For they had crossed

The mountains.

Bernard De Voto