The Grand Canyon
By Warren E. Domke
You don't see it at first, but it's there
Then you see little else and it's huge beyond belief
A chasm so large, so vast, with walls so distant
Even the echoes of creatures, including humans, are lost in it.
The colorful Arizona desert stretches afar
Far as the eye can see, til mountains tower above
The desert colors range from tan to deep red
And in the walls of the Canyon they are layered.
Here was a time when this land was a sea
There a time when it was a rain forest.
Animal fossils range from micro to macro.
Microorganisms, insects, dinosaur and mammal
How many years did it take to make this Canyon
What it is today? A wonderful tribute to nature's forces,
And to the God who commands nature to move or be still
Or to heave up a mountain range or to dig a Canyon this big.
I've seen it with snow patches glistening amongst its red rocks
Or framed by a blue sky on a bright spring day
Or shaded by twilight as shadows deepen and chase bright colors home
Or ghostly at night with stars shining above.
How many years? How many centuries? How many millennia?
You might as well ask the age of this wonderful blue planet of ours.
But to put it in marvelous perspective my 70-year-old legs could heed
A timeline extends back some ten million or more years laid out on the rim.
By human standards I'm starting to get old, seven decades, you know.
But by nature's standards my life is but a speck of dust on that timeline trail.
(The Timeline Trail is on the South Rim and you go back in time as you hike west.)
(I'm not the world's greatest poet, but neither am I the world's greatest builder. The Grand Canyon was made by the world's greatest builder. I tried to pay a small tribute to it with these lines.)
I appreciated the first three answers, especially Tin Can Sailor's, and I probably ramble as much or more than anyone.
My most recent visit to the Canyon in March of this year I saw the timeline for the first time. An awesome illustration of the age of the planet. I recommend this visit to all.
Scorpions are nasty critters and I kill 'em when I see 'em. Got stung by one last year. Not a nice experience at all.
By Warren E. Domke
You don't see it at first, but it's there
Then you see little else and it's huge beyond belief
A chasm so large, so vast, with walls so distant
Even the echoes of creatures, including humans, are lost in it.
The colorful Arizona desert stretches afar
Far as the eye can see, til mountains tower above
The desert colors range from tan to deep red
And in the walls of the Canyon they are layered.
Here was a time when this land was a sea
There a time when it was a rain forest.
Animal fossils range from micro to macro.
Microorganisms, insects, dinosaur and mammal
How many years did it take to make this Canyon
What it is today? A wonderful tribute to nature's forces,
And to the God who commands nature to move or be still
Or to heave up a mountain range or to dig a Canyon this big.
I've seen it with snow patches glistening amongst its red rocks
Or framed by a blue sky on a bright spring day
Or shaded by twilight as shadows deepen and chase bright colors home
Or ghostly at night with stars shining above.
How many years? How many centuries? How many millennia?
You might as well ask the age of this wonderful blue planet of ours.
But to put it in marvelous perspective my 70-year-old legs could heed
A timeline extends back some ten million or more years laid out on the rim.
By human standards I'm starting to get old, seven decades, you know.
But by nature's standards my life is but a speck of dust on that timeline trail.
(The Timeline Trail is on the South Rim and you go back in time as you hike west.)
(I'm not the world's greatest poet, but neither am I the world's greatest builder. The Grand Canyon was made by the world's greatest builder. I tried to pay a small tribute to it with these lines.)
I appreciated the first three answers, especially Tin Can Sailor's, and I probably ramble as much or more than anyone.
My most recent visit to the Canyon in March of this year I saw the timeline for the first time. An awesome illustration of the age of the planet. I recommend this visit to all.
Scorpions are nasty critters and I kill 'em when I see 'em. Got stung by one last year. Not a nice experience at all.