Classic Poem

Have you a religion,
a philosophy,
a theory or two or three?—
bring them out here—
a bath in this air won't hurt them.
Or keep them in your pockets—
there's nobody here to show them to,
for you and your thought to be doubted by—
and finding them useless,
scatter them down the mountain slope;
poke them and watch them slide
over strange soil and surroundings,
only to bounce and skip, twirl and fly,
then to nestle out of sight
beyond all argumentation.
Have you no religion,
no philosophy,
no theory or two or three?—
you can pick them up here
or break them, pluck them pleasantly:
Indian paint-brush,
baby-blue-eyes,
forget-me-not,
the yellow monkey weed,
or dizzier climbing
will give you clouds of wild lilac,
or wild clematis,
or a spray of the manzanita.
Or come and steal a bird song
(the mocking bird will teach you how)
or don't steal it.
So many snatches the birds have here,
let them start innocent counterpoint
with the aid of the wood-choir falls,
these water falls
the high snow and higher sun
contrive with the chance of the day!
Pebble, song or water fall,
pebble, song or water fall,
which one will you choose?—
why not have them all?
There's only the sky,
and this is a sky, Brother,
this great Sierra sky,
meeting the horizon wherever you stare:
there's only this blue
to see what you do or don't do—
and these trees. These trees?—
out here they're so still
you'd fancy them dead—
they don't even whisper a ghostly phrase,
and if they have thoughts
(like the folk back East)
they share them without polluting the air,
and there's no wind to carry their gossip
if of a sudden they trifled that way!
Let us go,
you and I,
with creeds or without,
and crawl the mountains out here,
these gray Sierra elephants,
from high broad shoulder to higher and highest.
They won't shrug you off—
not that they're docile,
they simply don't care!
But suppose we gave them a tickle or two
(elephants must have a rib somewhere?)
and suppose they did mind and shrugged us off?
Pebble, song or water fall,
which one would you choose
for toppling, sliding and bouncing,
skipping, twirling and flying?—
(fancy the joy we'd have,
pent up as we were back East!)
Come on, Brother!
But wait!
One moment!
Don't forget to bring your humility!