canyon

[Philatone]

V. 4 adjusted punctuation throughout (thanks to aish and leanne)

Canyon

sunken ark
of earth and bones of water,

what thought sprouted, blossomed
and withered in the head
of the first man to see cliffs
scraping trees on your sides?

Ideas of a bridge
must have died when he took
his first look down,

saw the chasm of your spine
devour everything but his footsteps,

heard the echo of sunlight
claw at prison walls.

Or maybe
he noticed none of this,
shrugged his shoulders
and looked for the safest place
to jump.

If only there
were a letter
written to his wife
--I can go no further from home
or initials
carved into a willing trunk;

but then would I
be able to imagine him,
legs draping the edge,
eyes lost gazing somewhere
towards the end of the earth

--until then,
something he did not expect to be found
for another thousand years.





V. 3 edited S. 3, moving "down" up a line (thanks to leanne). btw, "canyon" is just the title, not a line of poem.

Canyon

sunken ark
of earth and bones of water,

what thought sprouted, blossomed
and withered in the head
of the first man to see cliffs
scraping trees on your sides?

Ideas of a bridge
must have died when he took
his first look down,

saw the chasm of your spine
devour everything but his footsteps,

heard the echo of sunlight
claw at prison walls.

Or, maybe,
he noticed none of this,
shrugged his shoulders
and looked for the safest place
to jump.

If only there
were a letter
written to his wife
--I can go no further from home
or initials
carved into a willing trunk,

but then would I
be able to imagine him,
legs draping the edge,
eyes lost gazing somewhere
towards the end of the earth

--until then,
something he did not expect to be found
for another thousand years






V. 1


Canyon

sunken ark
of earth and bones of water,

what thought sprouted, blossomed
and withered in the head
of the first man to see cliffs
scraping trees on your side?

The idea of a bridge
must have died when he took
his first look
down,

saw the chasm of your spine
devour everything but his footsteps,

heard the echo of sunlight
claw at cellar walls.

Or, maybe,
he noticed none of this,
shrugged his shoulders
and looked for the safest place
to jump.

If only there
were a letter
written to his wife
--I can go no further from home
or initials
carved into a willing trunk,

but then would I
be able to imagine him,
legs draping the edge
like an empty pocket,
eyes lost somewhere
in the end of the earth

--until then,
something he did not expect to be found
for another thousand years


V. 2 (thanks to granny!)
changes: S. 2 "side" to "sides"
S. 3 "Idea" to "Ideas"
S. 5 "cellar" to "prison"
penultimate S. lost the simile; added word "gazing"; switched preposition "in" to "towards"


Canyon

sunken ark
of earth and bones of water,

what thought sprouted, blossomed
and withered in the head
of the first man to see cliffs
scraping trees on your sides?

Ideas of a bridge
must have died when he took
his first look
down,

saw the chasm of your spine
devour everything but his footsteps,

heard the echo of sunlight
claw at prison walls.

Or, maybe,
he noticed none of this,
shrugged his shoulders
and looked for the safest place
to jump.

If only there
were a letter
written to his wife
--I can go no further from home
or initials
carved into a willing trunk,

but then would I
be able to imagine him,
legs draping the edge,
eyes lost gazing somewhere
towards the end of the earth

--until then,
something he did not expect to be found
for another thousand years