Monday, June 14, 2010

Swatch of Nature

Swatch of nature
exquisite details
stitched together

shimmering threads
flitting wings
dew-drop prisms

orange-cupped lilies
prospecting bees
sugary sippers

bluebirds on watch
geese rising
above pasture grasses

back and forth
up and down
weaving beauty.

Greatest Show on Earth

Come one, come all
to this grand concavity
nature’s architects at work
elaborate motifs, ideal forms
mirrored in human spaces

the Parthenon
Easter Island faces
French chateaux
Egyptian pyramids
Persian palaces
Angkor Wat
Aztec temples
Moorish cloisters
walled city of Carcassonne
Gothic cathedrals
Italian palazzos, campaniles
Buddhist shrines
the Roman Colosseum
Stonehenge
sphinxes, gargoyles, Chinese dragons

exact archetypes
visible in situ
brilliantly carved
millennia before
in the Grand Canyon Rock Art Museum.

Spectators in the Canyon

Some rotund or spindly limbed
others with wide, flat faces

warmed by the desert sun
baked at night by heated rocks

sessile in stunning surrounds
witnesses to rush-by torrents

and serendipitous greeters
of one-way-ticketed tourists.

Rafting Through the Grand Canyon

Fingers curl around
ropes and straps
to ride the bucking waves

holding on, holding on

bodies tense
muscles taut
braced for the wet onslaught

holding on, holding on

hands clamp
in vise-like grip
against disaster

holding on, holding on

gobbling dragons
lie below
in inertial wait

holding on, holding on.

Temple of Rock

Temple of rock
anointed by
wind and water

monumental shrine
with coded layers
of untold stories

sacred beauty
product of eons
still unfolding

inaccessible
except to few
seeking majestic

fragments dispensed
as talismans
to these pilgrims.