Wilderness

When the wilderness calls out to me
Beckoning with arms spread open
The warmth of long lost familiarity
Seeps through my aching body
I know that its threatening silence
Will smother the silence in my soul
Through boulders and steep precipices
Ice like daggers drawn and lashes
Of merciless winds from the north
Loosening footholds on this life
I shall yet run to it, in wonder
Embrace its uncertain, cold love
In wilderness I shall strive to live
In its green arms I choose to die.