Ah, I understand now.
You never cared for the name Mount McKinley.
In your earliest years, and many years after,
native peoples addressed you as Denali.
Translation: the tall one, the great one.
They recognized your power and majesty.
How difficult for you to share a name
with an American President who never
set foot in the shadow of your magnificence.
After all,
you rule over six million acres of wild land
intersected by one road, ninety-two miles long.
You watch over taiga forest,
high alpine tundra, amazing wild life,
beautiful fauna.
You are the highest peak
in North America,
towering over magnificent landscape.
In 2016,
on the eve of its 100th anniversary,
the National Park Service righted a wrong.
Your name was officially changed
to what it should have been all the years before.
Denali. For you are the mighty one.
William Shakespeare,
you had it all wrong in Romeo and Juliet!
Written for both Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe and for Day 16 of NaPoWriMo.
The Prompts: At dVerse, Sanaa asks us to write a poem in a conversational mode of address. In my post, I’m having a conversation with Denali. The NaPoWriMo prompt is to “write a poem in which we clearly describe an object or place and then end with a more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does.“
The great mountain Denali would disagree with William Shakespeare’s line in Romeo and Juliet “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”
Photo is from our trip to Alaska some years ago when we did indeed travel through Denali National Park and see this magnificent mountain!
lillian the home poet 
A lovely poem to go with your gorgeous poetry…how exciting to get such a view of that magnificent mountain, Lillian!
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Year 2000 I was in Anchorage with my daughter for a swim meet. She wanted to go to Denali. We drove and drove and when we got there NP closed and snowed in. luckily for us the sled dogs were housed at the entrance and their keeper gave us a tour of the dogs. My daughter loved that. We never saw the mountain.
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I bow down to Denali … deeply and with reverence. Thank you for gifting us this poem.
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Write on about righting a wrong! An informative and effective poem, and yes, names are important.
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Indeed… and for a very long time I have almost forgotten McKinley (maybe the president too)
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This is delightful, Lillian. I’ve never had the opportunity to see Mt. McKinley…
~David
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I hadn’t heard of Denali or Mount McKinley, so I have once again learnt something new from your poetry, Lill, and the photo showed me what it looks like! I love how you combined Sanaa’s prompt with the NaPoWriMo prompt. You really captured the conversation tone and I love the ‘surprise’ ending.
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Thak you for introducing me to this mountain. Your ending made me smile!
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This is such a lovely amalgamation of two prompts, Lillian 😍 I especially admire this part; “You watch over taiga forest, high alpine tundra, amazing wild life,
beautiful fauna.” The closing line made me smile too.
Thank you so much for writing to the prompt 🩷🩷
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A gorgeous mountain, Lillian. I love your conversation regarding the name and its return to the original Native American name Denali.
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I liked your poem. We, Mrs. and I, visited Denali National Park in Alaska back in 2002. It was nice, but natural growth and rugged. What was the mountain named before?
..
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A truly magnificent sight and worthy of its name. What a gorgeous view to see over the taiga forest.
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Hi Lillian, this is such an interesting poem. I never knew about this mountain or its name changes.
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