Len Webster's 'The Canyon' Poem by Len Webster

They were silent all,
as if a Temple
had been reached.

They bent their knees,
bowed their heads
in prayer.

From the Coconino yesterday
everything was strange
and silent.

Indians packing up their wares
disappeared
into dusk.

And oh the splendour
of the views!
And oh how vast!

Almost as vast as grains of sand
trickling through
your fingers.

As in the past, we shall talk
of all these things
when today's sun
has gone
and all our memories
are dark like night.


Arizona 1971



(First published in the author's collection
'Behind the Painted Veil', Outposts Publications,
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey,1972, page 10)