When the poet says that “words become a hill to climb”, he ...

Imagery first: the colors primary

Familiar as the sun; the purpose sure –

To hear, to smell, to feel, to taste, to see.

The mind will enter by another door.

The verb is next: we are the rain that falls,

The frog that sees a cricket as it leaps,

The robin that flaps its wings and calls,

The fish that swims, the animal that creeps.

The third is narrative, the moving spell

Of syntax that ad-libs the myths of time.

Alas, we learn before the wishing well

Has dried how words become a hill to climb.

The fourth is symbol: goodness, beauty, love.

This is the time of quarrel, tears and pain.

Sowing the dragons’ teeth, we bob and weave

Until we bring the simple back again.

By Allen Kanfer. Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=28478 Glossary: to ad-lib: If you ad-lib something in a play or a speech, you say something which has not been planned or written beforehand. (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ad-lib)