Grand Canyon State

In lost horizons far from cars
shine silver moon and endless stars,
where rolling hills from low to high
as islands rise against the sky

But in the valleys broad below
in land bereft of rain or snow,
beneath the sun where little thrives,
life nonetheless endures, survives,

and drives its mangled arms up high
in endless fields of proud cacti
that stretch upon the mountains’ shoulders
back to pines and fields of boulders

and down through gates like leather wrought
by ironcraft and weathered thought,
that screech and howl from rusted ache —
such rugged spirit is their make

Up through a cleft in reddened stone
we rose upon the Mogollon
and passed beneath long hills of pines
to alpine halls and skyward shrines

From Humphreys Peak the world stretched wide,
in fullness bare on every side:
every hill and every fold —
every crevice’s stories told

In the north the ground sank down and wrapped
from mountains bold and white snow-capped
through broad, long pastures wide and bare
to end before a sight so fair:

so fair, so ancient, deep, and wide;
oh, words grasp vainly to describe
the Canyon’s bends, like brushstrokes bold,
and endless depth, and timeless old

And though the fates our steps denied,
around we drove and still arrived
in meadows green ‘neath sun unrolled,
in moonlight pale and brittle cold,

and walked from high to dust down low
in footsteps proud but full of woe
in sight of cliffs that did portend
a proud but bitter, mournful end

Timeless land of ancient peoples,
Spanish steel and desert steeples,
frontier spirit and cowboy soul,
and endless sunrise wreathed in gold:
Grand Canyon State, my heart you stole

Written May 2020 upon completion of the Arizona Trail*

*Excluding the inner corridor of the Grand Canyon, which was closed to travel per authority of the National Park Service

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