Note: this poem is published in Volume 24, now available
Banner photo: Becky Zunigar climbing Manifestación del Yang, a 5.12+ located in the Sierra de Juarez, Mexico. Photo by Oscar Gaytan
I first went climbing
When I had nothing else
Back in ’98
When Eminem’s rage
Was all the rage
Tied in to the figure 8
The knot of infinity
I was born in ’78
Same year as the cam
Five after hip-hop
After Cool Herc dropped the needle
Never did I use a heroin needle
Though some of the first people
I went climbing with did
And now they are dead
Grateful I never did
Never even sniffed a line
Saw what the drugs did to Jerry
Same as alcohol did to Pigpen
That’s why I’m mostly on the NA beers
And that one hitter quitter again
I started with the pen
Reading, writing, and cassette tapes
Made me this ill
Had to get out of Normal, IL
Like Nas, it was written, but it wasn’t normal
In this capitalistic, dogmatic, ill-matic country
If Nas is the king of poetry
Then my president is Jay-Z
By now I’ve placed a thousand some cams
Even left a few as future booty
For someone more clever and patient
Before the climate got so hot
Hotter than Andre 3k in ’03
I apologize if to understand me
You might need a hip-hop climbing dictionary
Or hit up Kris Hampton, Sam Prentice, or Devin Dabney
I am the Middle Child,
the 11c trad
of climbing poetry
You can always find something interesting in me
Tied in to the figure 8
The knot of infinity
But wait,
Like climbing itself
there’s always a twist to the plot
Like your favorite rapper getting shot
Word to Nipsey, Biggie, and 2Pac
Little did I know
My friends would die in lands
Distant and far
Some in the backyard
Others on mystical peaks
Buried in avalanches
That offered no second chances
Once you get the bug for these
Dangerous fixes
The path can be magic
The path can be tragic
The path may be magic
The path may be tragic
Tied in to the figure 8
The knot of infinity
For those of us still here
The path does go on
The figure 8 knot
is the knot
of infinity
if you use it right
Luke Mehall finally mastered the figure 8 knot on April 20th, 1999, nearly a year after first tying in, in Jackson Falls, Illinois.
