Extract from "Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America's Skull" by Eliot Katz (poems) and William T. Ayton (artwork)
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Holy Mountain
"Holy Mountain" by William T. Ayton, 2008

The Holy Mountain Texts

In the middle of the Canadian Rocky Mountain forest
We drank woodsy Merlot and prepared to study the holy texts
We read the No Matching Socks Sutra
We danced the Waltz of the Yellow-Rumped Warbler
We read the Prayer of the No More Royalty Butterfly
We chanted Om My Heart Belongs to You and Yogi Bear
We read the Diamond Sutra of the Torn Moccasins
We prayed to the Humongous Mosquito Gods
We debated the Midrash of Coyotes versus the Pet Cats
We praised the Ghostly Caribou who shed an antler of illusions
We sang the testament of the Back Spasm Healers
We bowed to the white toenails in the Muddy Trail Wolf poop
We meditated on the Front Yard Lawn Mower Sutra
We danced with bees humming in the nectar of bluebells
We marched to the tune of the Double Rainbow Creek
We anointed the nose of the hermetic porcupine
We purified our hairy bodies in the moonlit dew
And yelled “Away ye gods!” as the Holy Grizzly turned.

Eliot Katz and Vivian Demuth 2002

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images & content copyright © William T. Ayton, 1991-2014