© Joyce p. Hardy, Houston, TX, 2006
Mount Taishan
China’s Holy Mountain
By Joyce P. Hardy, Houston, Texas
Tai is a moving, living thing,
a mountain full of mysteries
and memories and moments
through the ages, whispering
its words of wisdom, bold inscriptions
carved and painted on its ancient rocks
by emperors and poets, scholars
knowing that this mountain is forever.
Sacred Mountain,
home to most powerful God,
where soul and body separate,
rejoin, and separate again,
where life is born,
returns, is born once more from stones
whose spirit fills believers
with life-giving force and grace,
where generations
climb through clouds and mist
to reach the
gates of Heaven,
where Heaven and Earth coexist
they hear the gentle voice
of the Universe
and feel the tolerance of the Creator.
Supreme Mountain, whose spirit, winging through millennia of prayer,
is born on swirling winds
that wind through time’s great truths
carved upon Tai’s heart,
and promises the soul
returning to the mountain
is at peace.
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