Through the Blizzard

The wind howled, but I did not falter,

Footsteps beneath the snow I did not alter,

Ice slicing through the marrow of my will,

Yet I carved my path uphill.

No hands to pull no voices to guide,

The world below – distant and blind,

Only the rhythm of breath and strain,

I climb through the blizzard, through doubt and pain.

Nay-sayers think of the peak as mirage,

I don’t need an entourage,

I’m not here for the applause,

I’m only fueled by my pure cause.

To feel the hush where the blue sky lies,

To reach the peak and I close my eyes,

Where silence speaks in whispered cold,

I let the storm cleanse what I hold.

The whiteness, stark, pure and true,

Not emptiness but something new,

The beauty of this solitude,

A place to forge my fortitude.

For what is struggle, if not to succeed?

What is the climb if not my creed?

I did not come here to beg for relief,

I came to rise through self-belief.