Canyon Song
by Martha Michael and Jim Harris
+ + + Lyrics from the canyon, music from a dream + + +

Up on the ridge with the Utah juniper

White cliffroses and Pinchon pine

Earth has swallowed all the insults done to her

Shrugs off centuries and still has time

The river whittles as it wanders

A mighty canyon on its way

To make a niche take time to ponder

Don't have to get there in a day

It's thirty years before Saguaro cactus blooms

The blossoms opening at night

Forty more before it sprouts a branch and looms

A human silhouette embracing the light

You can live throughout longevity

You can blossom when no one sees

You can still branch out at seventy

Take a chance or take your ease

It's thirty years before Saguaro cactus blooms

The blossoms opening at night

Forty more before it sprouts a branch and looms

A human silhouette embracing the light

Don't believe thosewho say it's over

That it's too late now you're past your prime

Just keep on growing branch out and blossom

Where there's breath there's hope and life

And time

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Re this song: Martha wrote the words, inspired by an old cactus in the Grand Canyon, and Jim supplied a melody taken from a dream about a group of children singing.