“Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Just over a year ago, I had the extremely good fortune of rafting down the Colorado River through 280 miles of the Grand Canyon. 28 days of continuously being outside with 10 unique and remarkable humans from various locals. (11 folks half the way.) From early February into March, rowing through howling winds, sleet, and intimidating rapids. With some sunny days sprinkled in between. I was the only novice among this seasoned group of river rats. Joe Bennion had been asked to guide this expedition by a friend who had waited 23 years for her permit to come up. This was his 69th time down the Grand, and at age 70, his river-worn body told him it was his last.
It is an experience I still haven’t been able to adequately wrap words around. But below are my attempts through a few haikus I wrote while engaging with this sacred creation.
_________
The barrel cactus
Are singing baritone to
The inflating sun
Filling the world with
Hot air as the day rises
To greet creation.
Oars dripping rhythm.
Five rafts strumming down the most
Grand of instruments.
_________
If I could pass through
The veil of a man-temple
And see what I see
While journeying through
This sacred celestial space
Called the Canyon Grand
I would be embraced
On all points of fellowship
Having seen and felt
God.
_________
For these stone gods carved
without hands, I pray for you.
Bright Angel. Tapeats.
Dark Shist. Mauve. This void—
Billion plus old revealing time—
Her wisdom. Her face.
Heard in the sonnet
of her river rocking walls
And dancing eddies.
I feel her praying
For me. For you. And For her
Womb—timeless, fruitful.
_________
What is this lovely
Moveable feast of light now
Feeding night shadows
With hungry dream fears
Of the quiet comfort food
Of a sleeping sun?
_________
We tangoed today
Lady Lava led and I followed.
We were glorious.
Anxious, tentative
desiring this moment
Grateful when it passed
She disturbs my dreams
This Colorado dancing
Down the Grand Canyon
_________
Here, sleeping near shist
Time dream-carries me downstream
Near two billion years
Beneath a moon full.
Shadows cast so long. Searching.
My life so abrupt.
_________
Four days off river
Floating down rocks and water
Now a dream run dry
Just I. No boat, oars
Trying to explain—to who?
That the end was here?
Life for twenty-eight days
Under sun, moon. Always with
Her—her voice, her touch.
The Colorado.
