by Grand Canyon Trust staff
As advocates for the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau, language is a powerful tool we use to speak for our public lands. We write op-eds, send emails, and submit formal comments and legal briefs. Try as we may to be concise, our love of place occasionally floods the page.
But brevity is an art, and today is National Haiku Day. So in the spirit of exercising economy of words, we tasked our staff with writing Grand Canyon haikus.
True to form, we counted our syllables — five, seven, five — and, in three short lines, attempted to capture our favorite memories of time spent below the rim.
Ten toenails intact
Say you're not hiking enough
Down under the rim
Descend down the path
With each step I am smaller
Time and life loom large
Falling stars and I
We made a pact together
To keep on laughing
The best thing about
hiking rim-to-rim at noon
is chocolate ice cream.
It has its own breath
From the depth of, life exits
Together it lives
What’s in a name, eh?
Try Ongtupqa, Wi:kaʼi:la.
“Grand” is the newest.
Water. Sediment
Uplift. Downcut. Erosion
Now a Grand Canyon
Light dances on cliffs
colors awake my spirit
inspired I trudge
A canyon wren sings
Cool breeze whispers me awake
And downstream we go
Brown, red, dirt, and sand
Time has carved its lines and curves
Leave it as it is
One day there is this
two juniper blue berries
one feisty titmouse
Whaap, whaap sounds above
the raven eyes the trail mix
and soars up the cliffs
Kids laughing with glee.
Field trip to the Grand Canyon,
what a perfect day!
—Candace Hamana
Toothy grins, wailing
Who carries out the diapers?
Love in the canyon
Heavy clouds across
horizon lost. Rain feeds flow
lightening strikes below
Rain brings waterfalls
Swirling, sensuous on rock
Smell sage air rising
Earthy, chilly dawn.
Beige, crimson, yellow, black, green.
Now for the hard part.
Standing and staring
Gazing into the abyss
Overcome with awe
A sharp eye perceives
many things missed by others
sit still and listen
Grandma junipers
ancient alligator skins
shedding blue-brown beads
Wondrous labyrinth
Alternate visions collide
What say Everett?
—Steve Rosenstock
Inflatable plinth
Grand conveyance equipage
Radness resplendent
Roasting pinon whiff
Windburned lips soothed with sap salve
Regenerating
—Vanessa Vandever
Jim said there’s this rhyme
Know the canyon’s history
Study rocks made by time
—Anne Mariah Tapp
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