The Mountain of the Island in the Sky

It's a mountain of sleepless nights
where the desperate
climb
dew weighing on hands clenched
with slate
where the rock of breath looses another gasp
for air
smoothing into mist blanketing
an inclining earth
so to settle men in for a grey
darkened morning
on the heights of a lifeless plain
a night upon the mountain
makes a man
empty of inspiration, a poet,
or insane