Sage's Ravine 1975

I am standing on a precipice
Below, the stream flies down its rocky path
Behind, the sheer rock rises, offering paths only to the determined

I have been here before
One wrong step means danger
I am not afraid, but I am careful.

I pause here, to watch the water hurtling so vigorously
Down the great jagged stones;
Trickling like a great jeweled curtain
Down the faces of the cliff
Lying idly in its pool’s bed
Singing in a thousand voices to the ancient things
It carves out of the bedrock
Crisp in the forest air

I lean against the rocks
Bones of the Earth
Cold and silent
Shelves and steps and great tables
Set with moss and fallen leaves

Bones of the Earth
Living skeletons watching us as we fly like gnats through this history
How much is contained in the rock
Whose story goes rolling back and back to the Earth’s seed

I am standing still
The trees sway and whisper in the filtered light
I am standing within Life and Death
One wrong step means danger
But I am not afraid
I have been here before
I am careful
I love this precipice