An Early Morning Prayer

I crest a hill and there behold
Above the frost and vapors cold
The dawn-lit mountains rising bold
	Like heaps of crystal gleamed in morning’s fire

I’ve seen those peaks in many climes
A dozen, hundred, thousand times
And if I made a million rhymes
	I’d never catch the awe which they inspire

I love how soft the sunlight glows
On hardened rock and frigid snows
So every mountain-watcher knows
	The blessed warmth of day is close at hand

May I be touched in such a way
By heaven’s light or God’s own ray
That some I chance to meet today
	May catch a glimpse of hope enough to stand