{Snow Canyon}
Small World
.
We walk like tourists
in our soft shoes
scuffing the earth
with or eyes
we listen to colors
watch rainbows and forests
blow over with the storm
of a flickering candle.
Author: kmarieclark
Phil and I especially enjoyed speaking to Sheri at the Split Rock Gallery who introduced us to beautiful art, high end architecture and Snow Canyon.
{Snow Canyon}
American Earth Rim
.
Leopard print hills are just
out in the Mohave desert
south and east of Las Vegas.
.
To the north of The Rim
sits St. George among steeples
of church and mountain.
.
Many times a year eighteen
galleries open to the night
to be closed by curfew.
.
Architects build on black lava rock
just beneath the peaking faces
of snow canyon
the quilted hills
diminish a climbing figure and crawl
slowly back into a covered earth.
.
Just miles away from the spotted hills
stained south of The Rim.
First, a few last shots of Bryce National Park showing the sand canyons we walked through.
{An observation at first glance of the Grand Canyon from the North Rim.}
~
Over the Grand Canyon
.
Are you wondering above the smog
over the canyon
the bright sky that hugs
low humid afternoons
about the sound of a gunshot
wound tumbling, echoing off
ancient carvings, rocks that fall.
.
The coveted beauty turned
a shoulder to our societies’
ignored warning
the warmest summer on record
for America cried
the glistening drops of honeysuckle
blooming a month too early.
.
A shadow glow of misty morning dew
rising foot in front of foot step wide
paths with wind sounds river melodic
like living next to an ocean, but here
in the desert the shifting of low wheat tassels
blow together, wind making an offering
to the hot hot sun.
~
Down Kaibab on the North Rim
.
A rock fell, but we didn’t see the sound
Of gunshots rumbling, echoing off ancient carvings
.
The same source happened by helicopter
The twirling blades chopping louder and louder
And finally we saw, miles away, a small white bubble.
Hoo Doo’s
.
Chess pawn pieces
ornaments to the garden
left to freeze
in an eruption of the landscape
exposed to a dry cobalt sky.
.
The sand residue glistens
fills up the prongs of the aloe plant
starves the tree roots of stable ground
leaving in the remains
Queen Elizabeth on her thrown
wallstreet and a lazy alligator
all in bad luck.
~
~
The Face of the Desert
.
Beneath the eyebrow of a rock crag
X’s cross the sky
fresh green cubes of hay dot fields in thirst
and above that
the pink cliffs with their deep faces.
~
~
East of Zion, at the Sevier River
.
Green top hair
white cliffs
just east of Zion.
.
Bubbling slow growth spouts
spread like pox over the landscape
until small knuckles pull up from the green meadow to expose the natural clay walls
sculpted low berms of the Sevier River.
~
~
At the End of The Narrows
.
A sand carved cave rises
to a spiraling ridge above
one massive shadow
surrounding a slim volume of light.
~
Photos by Americas Wonderlands & Zion Narrows Photos.
I was too worried my camera may fall in.
Observation Point
.
Faces of the sand dunes cry
ancient storms cemented rock into sandstone
the sky opens between the canyon walls
this temple of eternity.
.
The rock wears away
the constant feet making a deep sand path
there is a blooming cactus
a burning smell of rosemary.
.
Then, all of a sudden, you step into the sky
so blue
such an uninterrupted horizon of canyon edges
the sheer cliff face
other worn rock where the river lulled around
our hollowed steps
the raised scars of Cocino Rock embedded
in soft sandstone.
One cannot tire of such majesty.
~
The Narrows
.
The Narrows
a slot canyon beyond the Temple of Sinawa
the breath-taking sheer wall rises above
and beyond me.
The California Condor squawks and circles above
the sky cracks open
more every bend I turn
the high-waisted water
the rumble of stone moving
with the current and jostle of the seeker.
.
The scale of humanity diminishes here
it’s amazing that this Heaven exists
petals fall through the morning light
leaves float down to the Virgin River
canyon base where I wade.
.
The smooth weeping line of one waterfall thin
falls down a clean wall slanted to the high plateau.
.
Flash floods of the past
filed high ledges with rocks the size of my head.
.
Emerald pools gathered in the low hollows
green and sparkling as the sun was about to
perch on the top of the ridge.
.
The day unshaped by fear or any conscious reason
just the narrow and recently carved walls
that is, only 100 million years ago.
.
The last turn, the colorful lava rock at my feet
the red stripes, the gold buried beneath small rapids
the orange layers lying on their side face
shuffled by the stream and occasional hiker
into this dimension of Zion.
~
In the Garden, Under the Eaves
.
Fairies fly about the forest
to pull back draperies of mimosa lashes
small pods that open four to five flowers
With long delicate stamens
fuchsia lips, orange tentacles
coming from the silky yellow petals.
