‘Return to the Mountain”

“Mountain Musing” / photo Bruce Donehower

Dear Friends,

The trail to our very successful 2025 North American Section Conference had many zigs and zags and fierce entanglements along the way . . . as I discussed in the Conference summary chronology. Our “Return to the Mountain” was a bit like what a small group of poets, artists, musicians, and coyotes experienced on Mt. Tamalpais on Monday morning May 12 . . . day three of our three-day North American Section Conference in San Francisco.

On Monday morning, the mountain stood veiled in cold mist and fog; the weather forecast looked inauspicious; many people had already packed their tents and caravanned to yonder parts.

Nevertheless, a small group of Open Conference participants met in the parking lot at Pantoll Campground at 11:00, when the sky was heavily overcast and the air quite cold.

We said our Michaelic invocation under what identified itself as a significant tree at a significant rock . . . “Victorious Spirit! Flame through the impotence of irresolute souls!” . . . spoken on the full moon of May on the annual day of the Buddha’s enlightenment, Vesak (a verse apropos for the day and for our Ring of Fire Pacific Rim, one might argue); and then we marched and sauntered playfully to the overlook bench at the Dipsea trail — the CircumTam site known as “Circle of Rocks.”

Lo! And behold! The skies cleared; the sun shone brightly; a freshening breeze graced us from the Pacific Ocean!

The ocean and the mountain celebrated as we arrived. We gathered on a slope that looked south toward Big Sur . . . toward that land of new mythologies . . . toward the “big country to the south” . . . toward a landscape where some of us from last year’s conference did a bioregional poetic walkabout in September 2024. Poems were read, stories told, music played, conversations shared, and destinies woven . . . we remembered the ancestors . . .