I was in college 1996-2002, but this was likely 1999-2002 time range.
A.I. showed me three poems about Kilimanjaro and having read them, they don’t appear to be it.
“On Top of Africa” by B. Tejani
“Kilimanjaro” by Hana Njau-Okolo
“The Slopes of Kilimanjaro” by Dr. Robert Ippaso
The poem we read in college wasn’t so much about the beauty of the mountain, but more about the people at the top of it looking down at the people who remain on the bottom. One of the themes and lines in has something about “remember that while you look down on us at the bottom, we on the bottom look up to you at the top.”
Some theme about people looking at the place and things they don’t have.
I would have said it was by Robert Pinsky, but I have looked and he doesn’t have a poem like that.
Note: I may be wrong about Kilimanjaro. I am almost certain that was the mountain in it, but I would have thought I could find a poem about that with my themes more easily.
Does anyone know the poem I read?