Mick Burke (killed on Everest 1980)

 

In courage and skill I thought

To go beyond this world

And having striven I found

The frontier yet as far away

As the ever distant stars

That care not and know not

Even that they do not care.

 

So high; so High and for an hour

I smiled and stood out of the shadow

For I alone could cast one.

And between me and the stars

no other man could stand.

 

I turned and the formless universe

Snatched me from the ridge.

Dreaming still of vanished stars

And greater peaks to conquer.