To Be With You

by Dee Newman

On the steepest slope or the desert plain,
Whatever the scope, the scale or terrain,
Be it small and profound, a vast allure,
Safe and sound or ruggedly insecure,
In the cool of the night or the heat of the day,
Beneath sunlight or the Milky Way,
Beyond the shore, the sea cliffs and caves
As the gulls soar over white-capped waves,
Off the asphalt beyond the tossed-debris
Where the Great Fault meets the Joshua Tree,
Among ancient pines older than history,
Gnarled shrines veiled in moonlight and mystery,
Along a wild remote alpine expanse,
Scenes of mountain goat and flowering plants,
Toward a towering quest of ice and snow,
Lit from the west with the evening’s glow,
To share a perspective, a point of view,
Ah, what I would give to be with you.