Stone That Leaps: A Utah Sequence by Christopher Cokinos

Stone That Leaps

A Utah Sequence

Preternatural strands,
the gesture of reaching.
Held as earth, just so.

~

The raven’s gurgle
is a cat with wings, purring
quick to canyon echo.

~

Cold, full moonrise framed
by Partition Arch.  Portals
to fins, mesas, dusk–

~

Bushtits.  Then thumper
trucks?  Thus an arch: silent.
Erosion’s revenge.

~

I am 43.
Birthday moon, cold wine, firelight.
Stupid smile!  Years of this!

~

Ravens tumbled as
I set up the tent, missing
you, the moon a blue juniper berry.

~

Mormon tea,
like crinoid columns
of a former sea.

~

And sandstone’s slow cascade:
This place.
Lifted, cracked and stilled.

~

Wind-drift sand, sunlit:
How to make eons,
stone that leaps.

~

To thought’s last thought:
Balanced Rock:
Wisdom’s cairn.

Stone That Leaps: A Utah Sequence
Photos by Stephen Trimble

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