Roving a tranquil alpine gorge,
Past ancient relics and sacred artefacts,
I saw jagged jutting lumps of glacial ice,
And gigantic formations of Inky-black volcanic rock,
Sparsely splashed with smatterings of crystal-white snow,
I saw extravagantly technicolour foliage and flamboyant fauna,
Shrouded in blankets of hazy fog,
And hallowed silver statues glinting in the pale starlight,
A frost-bitten wilderness of ethereal wintry beauty,
A fiercely harsh landscape coated in rugged bristly vegetation,
Crunchy twigs and dried leaves crinkle-crackling,
Beneath clomping snow-boots and marching mules,
Nomadic herds of stocky wild yaks grazing the lush fertile flora,
And a tenderly brisk breeze tumbling down the coarse mountainside,
Like an immortal river of crisp clean air –
Threading a path through echoey ravines and cavernous valleys,
Marvelling at holy spinning prayer wheels,
Bewitched by families of foraging musk deer,
Their heavenly scent wafting dreamily through this glorious wonderland,
I saw majestic cranes and dawn eagles,
Seamlessly soaring over the snowy mountain peaks that careen heavenward like a volatile exploding geezer,
Idly gliding down the winding currents of hurricane-force jet streams,
Through huge waterfalls of radiant glittering snowflakes,
Over steamy swamps and thermal lagoons,
Filled with blissful volcanic-heated water –
Roaming a chasm-like canyon in the mystical dusk light,
Over granite bedrock where wild wolfpacks and red pandas stray,
Past scenes of destruction where torrential avalanches once violently cascaded,
I saw scraggly tufts of moist greenish-purple moss and lichen,
A marvellous supernatural oasis of Eden-esque wonder,
So otherworldly and surreal,
So enigmatic and peculiar,
Seeming alien or even paranormal to my foreign gaze,
Their graceful godly forms brimming with mystique,
Moulded by nature’s stormy seasons,
By winter’s prowling wrath and summer’s sprinkled whimsy,
As if chiselled and crafted by some holy insomnia-riddled master-sculptor,
In a distant realm of the endlessly expansive multiverse,
Awakened by visceral dreamlike visions gnawing at his tormented mind,
Electrocuting his tortured-artist limbs into action,
To obsessively pursue that great beauty,
To yearn deeply for that mysterious aesthetic ideal,
Like a regal camouflaged snow-leopard elegantly stalking its prey –
Poem by Stamos Mardou