Fingerprints of Yosemite

The kings and queens of Yosemite

Who’ve climbed her mighty walls

Of stone

Will live on forever

Within her legends

Within her whispering winds 

Blowing high above the valley floor

Robbins and Harding

Bridwell and Bachar

Fingerprints of Yosemite, fingerprints on stone

Pushing ever higher

Into the unknown

Johnson and Kauk

Potter and Caldwell 

Rutherford and Davis    

Harrington and Hill

Fingerprints of Yosemite, fingerprints on stone

Their upward assent

Their attack on the walls

Going up, up, up

The vertical pathway  

With its

Sun-splashed granite rock face

Growing

Into a cloud covered tower of the sky

Breathtaking for the beholder!!! 

Chalk covered hands

Gripping with fingers of steel

Quick clicks of the Quick Draws

Lifelines when something goes wrong

Fingerprints of Yosemite, fingerprints on stone

These masters of the high walls

I believe

Are folks

That have never gone halfway with anything

All the way people, or nothing at all

Fingerprints of Yosemite, fingerprints on stone