Ephemeral
Waters is a book-length poem, told by an Australian
traveller, which follows the once-great Colorado River from its source in the
central Rocky Mountains, through the American Southwest and the Sonoran Desert
of Mexico, to its historical delta in the Gulf of California. It incorporates
fragments drawn from geological surveys, archival documents, films, interviews
and personal conversations: the voices woven through it range from John Wesley
Powell, the leader of the first party to raft through the Grand Canyon, to
movie star John Wayne and contemporary park rangers. The result is a polyphonic
poem, both local and global in scope, embodying an Australian preoccupation
with water in taking the over-taxed Colorado as a prophetic example of a river
system in crisis
