Doris Jean Lynch

Mountain Music

When asked to join the choir in second grade, I agree—never say no to Mother Superior. This year, only sisters of students in the choir receive invitations to join. But after Holy Thursday mass, the choirmaster—eyes focused just on me—grumbles, “Your alto is positively jarring! Plus you sang off-key.” There before all, from smallest to tallest, I’m booted from St. Patrick’s choir forever. For years, I avoid all but solitary singing.

Dad’s birthday
lip-syncing the words
last candle flickers

Today, I decide to hike down Mt. Roberts in the pouring rain. My sister and brother-in-law, who rode the tram up with me, won’t slosh down any mountain, especially during a Southeast Alaskan downpour. Leaving the Tlingit Goldbelt Gallery, I begin the trek down. In the half-dark, the trunks of hemlock and Sitka spruce nearly glow. I stoop and ease over, one leg at a time, a fallen branch blocking the way. As the sloughed path turns steeper, I sense, or think I sense, a bear nearby. To avoid surprise encounters, some people carry bear spray or 120-decibel anti-bear whistles. I choose instead songs: “Marion the Librarian” and “When the Saints Come Marching In.” By the time I begin “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” I feel reassured, belting it out as though before a Madison Square Garden audience. Each time I sense, rightly or wrongly, another bipedal creature nearby, I fiercely sing fragments of show tunes from my youth. “All I want is a room somewhere,” “High on a hill,” “Wouldn’t it be loverly, loverly.” The songs cheer me, take me back to a simple happiness that I’ve forgotten: breath gathering deep in my diaphragm, gaining power from the lungs and larynx, until finally, my voice rises, reverberating in air.

300-year-old conifers I praise with song

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About the Author

Doris Jean Lynch’s collections include Swimming to Alaska (Bottom Dog Press) and Meteor Hound, both published in 2023, and her work has won awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Genjuan International Haibun Contest, and the Haiku Society of America Haibun Contest. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with her husband, Thom Gillespie.

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