where tigers belch + monkeys howl

B e n e d i c t o :


May your trails be crooked,
  
   winding, lonesome,

dangerous, leading to the most amazing
  
   view.

May your rivers flow without end,

meandering through pastoral valleys
  
   tinkling with bells,

past temples and castles and poets' towers

into a dark primeval forest where tigers
  
   belch and monkeys howl,

through miasmal and mysterious swamps
  
   and down into a desert of red rock,

blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and
  
    grottos of endless stone,

and down again into a deep vast ancient
  
   unknown chasm

where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled
  
    cliffs,

where deer walk across the white sand
  
   beaches,

where storms come and go

as lightning clangs upon the high crags,

where something strange and more beautiful

and more wonderful than your deepest
  
   dreams

waits for you-

beyond the next turning of the canyon
  
   walls.    





-Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)

"If a label is required, say I am one who loves the unfenced country"