In 1993, husband Chris and I went on a camping trip through Sedona and Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. From the seventh floor of the Desert View Watchtower on the canyon’s South Rim, the view was majestic. Everywhere I turned, there was another eye-catching view.
We camped for the night on the shore of the Colorado River, and when nightfall came, I got very still and quiet, sitting serenely on a camp chair, watching the campfire, thinking about my day’s travels. As I looked out beyond the river’s edge, I pondered, and I wrote. I gave serious and careful thought to this poem. You know how it is. Visualizing that moment in the Watchtower, looking out over the canyon. What it conveyed to my mind. I took that image and developed it, making it into something others might like to read. So I thought and daydreamed, then wrote a few more words, until I was lost in my poem. I looked down again, only to see that I could conclude and scribble a few more words about what being near the river meant to me. And this is what I scratched out.
During the time I wrote this, I looked back and into my past. Only to look forward to new possibilities, new dreams, and new hopes.
The River
Remember the days
The river rinsed my feet,
As I frolicked in that crystal clear stream
Suddenly, the emerald green leaf
Turned into a delicate gilded gold,
Blowing
Swaying with sweet whispers of its chattering leaves…
Staying beautifully poised with every beautiful pose…
Then winter came,
The calming stream turned,
Leaving the leaves
Covered with a frozen snow,
Stiffening the water below,
Turning its ivory black,
Like the shadowed forest,
In the mist of dusk,
And being very, very cold!
You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Alan Schmierer via Wikimedia Commons.