Sedona - Land Of Gods Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

Ethereal celestial land
Of red rock mountains
Vermilion on the plains
Of Arizona's forehead

You have me seduced
Charmed and bewitched
With the golden sun
Rising and sinking
In your curvaceous folds
Like a lover in eternal thrall

Your hills are a pantheon
Of unfinished visages
Of Gods no one knows
Sculpted perhaps
By wandering aliens
Who left on some emergent errand
Across infinite galactic spans
To return some day with chisels in hand

While the clouds and winds
Bathe and wipe the gods
With unflinching devotion
Every turn of the seasons

While the humming birds
Hover and sing their praise
Beating their wings prostrate
Over paloverdes below
Their boughs all yellow
In silent veneration

While alders, ashes and sycamores
Stand motionless
Peering their ears
Yearning for the staccato
Of ancient horse-hooves
Of Apache Indians
Speeding down the slopes
For friendly rendezvous
With their ever-loving spirits

While a lonely desert quail
Unseen in a bush
Pours out her heart
Dissolving at dusk
Calling the ancient artisans to work

Sedona
You have me seduced
You are the land of gods
None other on earth can surpass
The beauty of your mounts
Oh aliens, whoever you are
Come back to this blissful land
And chisel out our future gods