Chapter Four from THE CLIMBER by JUDGE SMITH

THE CLIMBER:
She wasn’t easy, she kept her secrets, she asked for respect.
On some difficult pitches, quite technically tricky,
just me and a guide.

CHOIR:
People can have the strangest ideas. People get strange ideas.
A mountain can never be your mother,
a mountain can never be your wife.
A mountain is always just a mountain, just a mountain.
But people can have the strangest ideas. People get strange ideas.
A mountain is not some great cathedral,
a mountain is not a way to God.
A mountain can only be a mountain, just a mountain.
But people can have the strangest ideas. People get strange ideas.

THE CLIMBER:
Only the flesh and the bones of the planet were real.
Everything else was a bad dream,
And I wanted to strip it away, get back to the last irreducible things.
And her rock and her ice as they’re freezing and bruising my hands, and gravity hauling me backwards,
I wanted my life to be real, and this was as real as reality gets.

And when she surrendered, the summit was perfect,
an ice-covered shrine;
Whiteness and silence, clouds like a veil, untouched, undefiled.

CHOIR:
People can have the strangest ideas. People get strange ideas... Etc.

THE CLIMBER:
I didn’t want to be sharing this moment with anyone.
I wanted to be alone with her.
Told the guide I would like to try this route solo,
but he wouldn’t hear of me climbing alone.

CHOIR:
Signore, is too much danger. Signore, this part of the year,
Signore, is clouds and fogs, Signore, come with no warning.
You do not know the way.
Signore, you climb okay, but, Signore, precipice are many.
Signore, when clouds are coming, Signore, the way is hidden.
You must not climb alone.

• Alternative
• accoustic
• narrative rock
• neo-classical-rock
• songs
• Glastonbury