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.