From Deseret News archives:
Bridal Veil Falls, Early Winter
The season's freeze has locked the waterfall,its wavering fluid, into a cold permanence.
The last arcs of free spray, crystalised
in mid-air, are scattered among the stones.
Here is a preserved droplet, a Victorian stopper,
which will not melt for months. Water is held,
as these lines hold under the bite of words.
The wind is the one sound, hissing
into the crevice over the quiet ice.
For seventy hardening seasons I've watched
the stopping of waterfalls. Some of the time
I knew and perhaps understood how water
changed in winter, what happened to molecules,
how the structures of elements could petrify
in a night from bounding liquid to
an obdurate smoothness. Not any longer.
All that's confusing now. I am content
to watch the world turn cold with its old grace.
Some younger men will come, active, dressed
against ice, with crampons and pitons, coils
of nylon rope, looking up quite differently
from the river bed. They'll wear their red
windproofs on the pallor of the ice,
Story continues belowsearch for fingerhold and toehold, securetheir spiked boots, begin to climb.
It's grim work. At first one sees them progress
with a quick elegance, straight up, few overhangs.
But soon they must steady, take the ice axe
from its holster, with brisk hacks
of the blade cut steps out of the sliding
fall, blocks of cold spoil dropping
to the valley floor, skittering down.
They'll pull themselves up to the line
of sky above them, the canyon's edge.
What then? No axe will chop footholds
in that thin air. They won't fly, I can tell them.
Leslie Norris
Comments
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- Garnett's jumper gives Boston win 6:59 p.m.
- Kansas State beats No. 18 Dayton 6:56 p.m.
- Smith's foul shots help Vols 6:47 p.m.
- Cardinals beat Rams, 21-13 6:44 p.m.
- Transactions 6:39 p.m.
- Chargers rout Broncos, 32-3 6:34 p.m.
- Patriots defense stifles Jets 6:31 p.m.
- Will Oprah Winfrey fade away? 6:20 p.m.
- Find my family exploits 6:20 p.m.
- Glenn Beck to enter politics?
- BYU records with win
- Jazz outlast Pistons in overtime
- Cougars turn focus to dreaded rivals
- Cougars put the fun back in football
- Former BYU professor remembered
- Kirilenko heating up for the Jazz
- Police link alcohol to murder
- Wendover airfield's legacy lost?
- Florida No. 1, TCU 4 in AP Top 25
- Buttars wants to limit gay rights laws
201 - Glenn Beck to enter politics?
181 - Palin plans tour stop in Utah
178 - BYU records with win
127 - Palin's book shows she's unqualified
125 - Officer cleared in Cardall Taser case
103 - BYU cuts Women's Research Inst.
100 - Jazz finally win in San Antonio
98 - Utes knock off rival Aggies
93 - Huntsman pleased with Obama
87
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