Grand Canyon

This painting is about Grand Canyon
but not about awe, or rather,
it's about not being about awe,

about an opening up of the view
that startles us into knowing
how big we are, how there is
nothing here we cannot reach, touch,
take the measure of, how the fear

that makes us step back from the edge
(that already your knowing
has overstepped) is the body's fear,
desperately reminding us that it
is not us, cannot fly,

that we must not leap this gap
in a thought, easy as sky,
without first leaving the body
in a safe place, that we must

do it alone--and even then,
"Come back!" cries the body,
gripping the metal rail.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 6, 2002