"Grand Canyon" lyrics - JUDY COLLINS

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 often listened
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