William Allegrezza's "Grand Staircase Escalante, Utah"

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William Allegrezza edits the press Moria Books, Moss Trill, and teaches at Indiana University Northwest. He has published many poetry books, poetry reviews, articles, translations, short stories, and poems. He founded and curated series A, a reading series in Chicago, from 2006-2010. More information about him can be found at https://www.allegrezza.info.

 

Grand Staircase Escalante, Utah

1.

A red cliffs looms

above me. The birds 

Play. A mule deer grazes 

near the creek’s edge.   

Last night I hiked through 

a gulch with hanging

ledges and a dried creek bed 

filled cacti.

    I would like 

to soak in the stillness

and take it back to the 

rush of daily life. 

2.

My daughter

tells me that she 

has just seen a hummingbird,

and I think she must be 

mistaken for the desert

surely is no place for 

such a creature, 

but then one stops 

briefly near me.

I need to throw away what 

I think I know to be open

like a child to the magic

before me. 

3.  

The birds screech 

at me for my 

presence so unwanted, 

but I have not been 

anywhere so peaceful 

for months.  

4.

We have come here

we tell ourselves to see

different landscapes, 

though perhaps we have 

just come to understand 

ourselves better. 

    As i write

I look up to see a 

desert mouse scurrying 

on a sunny ledge. She

pays me no attention

as she searches for 

food. 

5. 

Red dust from sandstone 

covers all--the dust is general over

the canyons. 

I want to think it means

something, but I suspect

that I am just enthralled

by its color.  

6. 

It’s morning in the desert,

and I’m drinking coffee

packaged in Mexico from 

a cup made in China warmed 

with a gas canister from Korea.

I want to protect what i see, 

but am I? 

7. 

After so many years of school, 

what do I know but the names 

of a few books and how to 

write them down--the plants, 

the sunshine on rocks–these

I have had to see for myself. 

 2022 William Allegrezza