"The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain" -comments

"It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,"

I interpreted these two lines to be saying that the poem was his direction in life. Stevens seems to be saying that the poem, to him, is like a mountain to a climber. Just as a climber knows that the top of the mountain is his goal, Stevens knows that the poem is his goal. The poem is a sort of release from his normal life. Poetry is his "recreation", his hobby, his way to get away from the everyday drone of life. This is how I interpret the lines.