Grand Canyon

written by Judy Collins/ The Judy Collins Publishing Company (ASCAP) or The

Wildflowers Company/Admin by Universal Music Corp (ASCAP) when noted.

Outside my window lies the canyon

Red and turquoise, orange and blue

Wandering through the painted desert

Like some bewildered drunken fool

The Colorado deep within her

Cuts and rolls and sings and plays

Waterfalls and purple rainbows

In her mists of silver haze

Once I knew a man who traveled

Down her waters every day

Made his living guiding strangers

Where his shadows knew the way

On the borders of the river

Lit the fires and smoked the pipes

Told the travelers all his stories

Dared the men to win the prize

White with foam the water danced

Over rocks and under skies

Blue with summer, drenched in rain

Faster than I realized

He was hard about his work

Soft about the columbines

Spoke about Apache friends

Missed the years of silver mines

When the west was far away

Safe from eastern peddlers

When the canyon was his own

Far from mindless meddlers

In his arms I listened often

Sharing every dream he dreamed

A summer lover soon to fly

Far from where the moonlight gleamed

I have often thought of him

Riding down the river’s heart

Living for the plunging waters

Prying mysteries apart

Is he still alive and smiling

Through a hazy waterfall

Sometimes I think it was madness

To have left his lonesome call

To sail beyond the canyon wall

Out to where coyotes call

Back then, when I knew it all