when I was born in the summer of 86 my
dad wrote me these words the important
places child of mine come as you grow
and youth you will learn the secret
places
the cave behind the waterfall the horns
of the oaks that hold you high
the stars so near on a desert ledge
the important places and as with age you
choose your own way
among the many faces of a busy world may
you always remember the path that leads
back back to their important places
dad for forests 1986
before we could walk we learned to swim
in the pond below the house pushed back
and forth between caring hands water was
a constant
I heard that form as a baby even lived
parts of it as a kid and then forgot it
completely as I moved away from the
mountains to find my own path in a city
far from those places dad called
important then the year dad turned 70 I
felt he stopped thinking about living he
was slowing visibly and that scared the
out so I ignored it
I picked up broken
I read that old man will see visions
young man fall dreams die believe me I
see are facing everything that same
winter I unearthed the box of old family
books and found the poem again the
important places flipping through dad’s
old slides it occurred to me that maybe
just maybe if I can bring back together
these two things that were young once my
father and the Colorado River I can
somehow travel back in time to learn
something of who my father was
when I was very young the smaller rivers
and creeks taught me a certain wisdom of
flowing water but they also gave me a
sense of wonder where did you come from
where are you going
and the first time I heard of the Grand
Canyon I was probably seven years old
and I looked at it through my hands
stereoscopic I guess they were slides
and then over the years I had caught
other glimpses there was a magnetism
there that driven
the first time I experienced the
Colorado water to flesh was in a kind
inside my big there is an r that is
indescribable
I never thought I would return
in 1970 dad let his Explorer scouts West
from Maryland on a whitewater expedition
that would culminate in a 10-day trip
down the Colorado River
forty-three years later I challenged him
to go back to the river to do it again
but this time to bring me along
we pushed our raft out of Lee’s ferry on
November 12th 2013 first stroke hasn’t
feel like coming back with dad grinning
behind the boars not just alive but
living again the way I’d known him as a
child
and then something more something deeper
twinkled under his tired eyebrows a
spark of something I had never seen
before
grandis not
descriptive enough adjectives for the
country that we’re traveling through
right now just looking at head singing
sunlight penetrate that he’s been
everybody feels that
having never been to the canyon before I
had no idea what we would find but
secretly I hoped we would find the
missing part to the time machine I was
building the piece that would take me
back to 1972 no dad as a young man and
in that to learn something about myself
the things that bring joy to my
wonderful have been living a long time
as I’ve gotten older sometimes it’s
difficult to do all the things that I
did back then but so far it’s been just
a thrill there’s
however want more to come down river you
learn a lot about people on the 28 day
trip there were 15 of us on six rafts
and four kayaks dad looked on the river
like an old friend the rare kind where
years passed but the memories of one
another remain vivid picking up right
where they left off
it brings back memories of all the kids
in there some who didn’t want to get in
there because dragged it in anyway
good to be back here
at night as we sat around the fire dad
told tales of his old friend the river
and as shadows danced on the canyon
walls above us the line between then and
now seemed to fade and flicker and
finally
each morning I watch dad’s struggle from
his ten to move from the shore back into
the current back towards that important
place
and in that movement he comes alive the
closer he is the river
the stronger the grip of his hands the
fuller is smile and the deeper is
perhaps and for a moment we both forget
howling is
any last words from the camera before I
put it away holy
sometimes we get stuck in Eddie’s and in
life currents that won’t let us go
places we shouldn’t be and as we get
older we look at our parents we wonder
what they’re doing we think they’re
losing them but what I realized is dad
never had it all figured out in the
first place as much as he’s taught me
and shown me how to live he’s still
finding his path just the same as the
rest of us and that’s okay because the
joy is in the journey no one has the
answers not even our parents in Dad’s
poem that he wrote twenty-eight years
ago he said you always remember the path
that leads you back to the important
places I don’t know if he remembers
those words as much as I do but I
realized on the Colorado River whether
you’re young old or like me somewhere in
the middle we can all use a little push
from our friends or family as we find
our way back back to the important
places
dad wrote me these words the important
places child of mine come as you grow
and youth you will learn the secret
places
the cave behind the waterfall the horns
of the oaks that hold you high
the stars so near on a desert ledge
the important places and as with age you
choose your own way
among the many faces of a busy world may
you always remember the path that leads
back back to their important places
dad for forests 1986
before we could walk we learned to swim
in the pond below the house pushed back
and forth between caring hands water was
a constant
I heard that form as a baby even lived
parts of it as a kid and then forgot it
completely as I moved away from the
mountains to find my own path in a city
far from those places dad called
important then the year dad turned 70 I
felt he stopped thinking about living he
was slowing visibly and that scared the
out so I ignored it
I picked up broken
I read that old man will see visions
young man fall dreams die believe me I
see are facing everything that same
winter I unearthed the box of old family
books and found the poem again the
important places flipping through dad’s
old slides it occurred to me that maybe
just maybe if I can bring back together
these two things that were young once my
father and the Colorado River I can
somehow travel back in time to learn
something of who my father was
when I was very young the smaller rivers
and creeks taught me a certain wisdom of
flowing water but they also gave me a
sense of wonder where did you come from
where are you going
and the first time I heard of the Grand
Canyon I was probably seven years old
and I looked at it through my hands
stereoscopic I guess they were slides
and then over the years I had caught
other glimpses there was a magnetism
there that driven
the first time I experienced the
Colorado water to flesh was in a kind
inside my big there is an r that is
indescribable
I never thought I would return
in 1970 dad let his Explorer scouts West
from Maryland on a whitewater expedition
that would culminate in a 10-day trip
down the Colorado River
forty-three years later I challenged him
to go back to the river to do it again
but this time to bring me along
we pushed our raft out of Lee’s ferry on
November 12th 2013 first stroke hasn’t
feel like coming back with dad grinning
behind the boars not just alive but
living again the way I’d known him as a
child
and then something more something deeper
twinkled under his tired eyebrows a
spark of something I had never seen
before
grandis not
descriptive enough adjectives for the
country that we’re traveling through
right now just looking at head singing
sunlight penetrate that he’s been
everybody feels that
having never been to the canyon before I
had no idea what we would find but
secretly I hoped we would find the
missing part to the time machine I was
building the piece that would take me
back to 1972 no dad as a young man and
in that to learn something about myself
the things that bring joy to my
wonderful have been living a long time
as I’ve gotten older sometimes it’s
difficult to do all the things that I
did back then but so far it’s been just
a thrill there’s
however want more to come down river you
learn a lot about people on the 28 day
trip there were 15 of us on six rafts
and four kayaks dad looked on the river
like an old friend the rare kind where
years passed but the memories of one
another remain vivid picking up right
where they left off
it brings back memories of all the kids
in there some who didn’t want to get in
there because dragged it in anyway
good to be back here
at night as we sat around the fire dad
told tales of his old friend the river
and as shadows danced on the canyon
walls above us the line between then and
now seemed to fade and flicker and
finally
each morning I watch dad’s struggle from
his ten to move from the shore back into
the current back towards that important
place
and in that movement he comes alive the
closer he is the river
the stronger the grip of his hands the
fuller is smile and the deeper is
perhaps and for a moment we both forget
howling is
any last words from the camera before I
put it away holy
sometimes we get stuck in Eddie’s and in
life currents that won’t let us go
places we shouldn’t be and as we get
older we look at our parents we wonder
what they’re doing we think they’re
losing them but what I realized is dad
never had it all figured out in the
first place as much as he’s taught me
and shown me how to live he’s still
finding his path just the same as the
rest of us and that’s okay because the
joy is in the journey no one has the
answers not even our parents in Dad’s
poem that he wrote twenty-eight years
ago he said you always remember the path
that leads you back to the important
places I don’t know if he remembers
those words as much as I do but I
realized on the Colorado River whether
you’re young old or like me somewhere in
the middle we can all use a little push
from our friends or family as we find
our way back back to the important
places
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