for the Smith College 50th Reunion Class of 1974
To set our books down and head to mountains
was to entwine ourselves in a dance of elements ─
air, water, earth and light
This trip was our prize for bounding up
steps of the dark library
to reach for our unknown hearts
Over Green Mountains where light falls through trees
the sun was a pearl
and the leaves glazed in gold
Pines dwarfed towns of pristine houses
that faced mosaics of walled gardens and we
wondered if beautiful strangers waited for us there
Along a dirt road fresh streams met downhill
where ducks revolved around a pond and flew
from their secret palace soon lost to us
At dusk we returned to the place we had known
but was now somewhere else as the library beckoned us
to pages of wisdom from eras we would never remember
