An Ocean of Dreams

To stones from which we build an ocean of dreams
To stones where beginnings and endings abide
To stones pregnant with the longing of revelation

To stones from which I weave the light of joy
To stones in which I chisel a path for the soul
To stones that I touch, and the vapors of love arise
And as I polish them my soul thins out
And the gods of mystery talk to me.

To stones which have taught me the radiance of labor
To stones which I lean on each time
I am touched by fatigue and despair knocks upon my door.

To stones which connect me with what I know
And with what I do not know.

I have learnt incarnation to penetrate the unknown
And I have dwelt between the orbits of labor and the orbits of dreams

Mona Saudi
translated by Tanya Tamari Nasir
from Forty-Three Poems (Passeggiata Press)
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Mount Bahasa Indonesia Puncak Jaya, formerly Puntjak Sukarno, Gunung Carstensz, or Mount Carstensz is the highest peak on the island of New Guinea, in the Sudirman Range, western central highlands. Located in the Indonesian part of New Guinea, known as Irian Jaya, the 16,500-ft (5,030-m) Ngga Palu summit is the highest in the southwestern Pacific and the highest island peak in the world. It marks the terminus of a glacier-capped ridge 8 mi (13 km) long that extends eastward from Ngga Pilimsit (formerly Mt. Idenburg). The ridge, which falls sheer for 10,000 ft on its northern and southern slopes, presents great walls of ice. Although the snowfield of Puncak Jaya was reached as early as 1909 by a Dutch explorer, Hendrik A. Lorentz, the peak was not climbed until 1962, by an expedition led by an Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer.

Alpine Ascents International Climb Dates: 2 November to 24 November 2002.
International Mountain Guides Climb Dates: November 2002