Into Another Time

Grand Canyon Reflections

Margaret Randall

In her most recent book of poems Margaret Randall reflects on geography, history, and the human experience.  She uses her intimate knowledge of the Grand Canyon, dating back to the summer of 1947, to explore these themes in language that bridges the divide between active engagement and serene reflection. Her partner, artist Barbara Byers, created the beautiful drawings that enrich this volume.

The tilt of this rock wall
brings tears
just as that other wall at Hovenweep
once made me weep:
then and now
a gesture of return.

There, centuries of tension
between the massive rock foundation
and its Anasazi construction
pulled them apart,
causing the layers of stone
to lean into my sudden sob.

Here, what is left
of a Paiute room
jolts my startled eyes.
Low rocks: loosened by time
and never bound with mortar.
Even beneath this Canyon shelf
the movement of wind and water
shifts its bearings.

Amazement that anything at all
survives.
Yet it is the angle pulling at my nerve,
moving me back
to the map I know by heart.
             —“Angles”

6 x 9 inches • 96 pages • ISBN 0-9753486-2-0 • $12.95