Facilis Descensus Poem by gershon hepner

Just as we all know descent
to hell is easy we all know
that it is harder to repent
than making tracks for hell below.
When ascent is only made
by pleasure, there aren’t holding straps
preventing falls when we cascade
down mountains. First we bruise the caps
of knees and then we pull or backs,
and after we may suffer mild
concussion, till in body sacks
they bring us down for being wild.
If only there were ways that we
could hang on to the hairline cracks
along the path perhaps we’d be
less vulnerable to anticlimax.

Inspired by a poem by Kay Ryan in her collection, “Flamingo Watching”:

THE NARROW PATH

One can perhaps please one’s self and earn that slender right to persevere. Marianne Moore

No rime-grizzled mountain climber,
puzzled by where to put his fingers next,
knows the least thing about
how narrow work gets
that depends only on pleasure.
When it gets late or he gets depressed,
he can hang in a nylon sack,
his whole weight waiting
for the light to come back.
But for the people who ascend
only by pleasure
ther are no holding straps.
They must keep to the
hairline crack all the time
or fall all the way back.



12/10/08