The following piece is my rendering in words of a watercolor given to me by Erik Altmayer. The painting, also named Springtime on the Colorado, depicts a scene from a hike along the Colorado River in the westernmost part of Arizona in April 2019. The painting hung in my bedroom for the remainder of the year and was the inspiration for the piece, written in January of the following year while visiting the Grand Canyon. Both the poem and the painting are included below.
Runners’ steps at dawn depart
Dustward weaving together and apart
From road downward, world behind,
Through canyon cracks that earthward wind
Sunbeams taper at crumbled cliff heels,
Shadows shift under sky that wheels,
As sun-seared stone snakes and guides
And parts to waters gleaming wide
Cascading bends in orange folds divide,
Kaleidoscope flowers blossom riverside,
And blue skies above with open arms hold
The Sun at apex radiant gold
Clouds take form and to the east pass,
As runners’ steps return at last
And in the dusk light glow of peace:
Of promises kept, fulfillment, release
Sun slips away, in the north stars swirl,
Sky turns red and then to purple
And to night velvet before the waxing Moon;
Days that came and went too soon
Though runners look to paths untrodden,
Suns of past burn unforgotten:
Vegas lights through desert nights shine
Over Colorado springtime in watercolor enshrined
© 2020 Ilyas Taraki
notes from my iPhone 