canyon

[Leanne]

Canyon -- is this here as the first line of the poem, or the title? If it's the first line I'd lose it, but it's probably not

sunken ark
of earth and bones of water, -- "bones of water" is so incongruous, it's wonderful

what thought sprouted, blossomed -- nice use of the comma and enjambment
and withered in the head
of the first man to see cliffs
scraping trees on your sides? -- again, the inverted idea of "cliffs scraping trees" gives the image an entirely unique perspective

Ideas of a bridge
must have died when he took
his first look
down, -- In this strophe I'm not sure the enjambment works... it seems very staccato and the rhyme stands out a little too much for my taste. Were it mine to break, I'd be tempted to go with:

Ideas of a bridge must have
died when he took
his first look down


saw the chasm of your spine
devour everything but his footsteps, -- very dramatic! And I do like the break on a comma

heard the echo of sunlight
claw at prison walls.

Or, maybe, -- are the commas adding anything here?
he noticed none of this,
shrugged his shoulders
and looked for the safest place
to jump. -- this is a nice wry strophe

If only there
were a letter
written to his wife
--I can go no further from home
or initials
carved into a willing trunk,

but then would I
be able to imagine him,
legs draping the edge,
eyes lost gazing somewhere
towards the end of the earth

--until then,
something he did not expect to be found
for another thousand years -- this close gives the impression of the observer interrupting the eternal (or near-eternal) in almost voyeuristic fashion, I like it a lot!

This leaves me with a lot to ponder. I especially like those odd upside-down images you've peppered this with, and the poet's infernal curiosity about things that are none of his business The things we wonder about late at night, when sane people are dreaming about winning the lottery!