Climb for 1st Responders: About PTSD

A charity climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro

Poetry

Getting Ready

Gazing up from Key’s Hotel
the roof of Africa is in view.

Not thinking what lies ahead,
not knowing what lies ahead!

Some worry, some yearn, some sit and look and wait
not knowing.

A Journey with No End

Breaths, Breaths sounding loud
Polepole up to the top
Sounding loud but sounding strong
Up to the top.

Polepole, hakuna matata

Climbing down, to reach the top
Up then down but always higher.

Raining now, I see a peak
I can’t make it I’m too weak.

Don’t give up
Stella is near
Lava Towers over our heads
I can’t quit now, I’m in good stead.

Stella’s near, don’t give up.
Clear nights, starry, starry nights
Cold nights! It bites and bites.

Wake up! It’s still night!
Stella calls, we must hike.
Up, up don’t mind the scree
Keep climbing even higher.
We see Stella, she’s in our reach.
Hello Stella, you stay here we must go.

Down to the crater we climb up, high and higher
We go to the top. Stella’s over, we now seek Peace.

Simple movements make breathless, now. We win tomorrow
Straight up the wall. We sneak behind, not the tourist route!

Cold as hell we make our push
Climb, climb, climb, but down no more.
Digging foot steps, footholds for all.

Easy now, it really is. No thoughts of breath, just moving higher.
Adrenaline high, one step closer. Each step I take a record it make.

We’re at the top, Stella’s below. She wanted us to stay be Peace wins out.
We’re above the world, above the clouds. We triumph this day, but do not conquer
cannot conquer, that is the Kilimanjaro way.

Enjoy the feeling, enjoy the view, enjoy the time.
Cameras work overtime, showing us at the roof.
The pictures will show the view. But this thing of beauty
only your insides can know.

We must go down, we don’t want to go down.
What lies ahead we do not know. What lay below? Time will tell.
What is now behind will always lead, it makes below a special place.
Time well spent cannot be lost.

Time travelers we are as we leave our perch. Featherless birds, soaring high.
We ride the thermal down, down, down. Our lives’ are changed forevermore. All separate people, now bound as one.