Dark on the Mountain

Some things are so wide and deep they can only be told in a story. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a story is worth a thousand pictures. Birth, death, resurrection, loss and love cannot be described or explained. We know them by touch. Stories invite touch. Most of these have been read aloud by the author to friends and strangers at his own table, on mountaintops, in neighborhood pubs, even in church. They are collected here in hope readers might want to read one aloud sometimes. It can get dark on the mountain, but...

There is no night that is so dark
That it can quell the slightest spark;
The faintest light, as dim and far
As from a solitary star,
Will shore the heart and stay the mind
And show the way the soul must find.