You cradle spruce beneath juniper shade
Pinon perfume rides the warming air
Varnish drinks the amber mesa glow
Horsehair waits for rosin and prayer
Cryptobiotic crust holds its breath
Canyon wren suspends its trilling song
Time unspools like loosened tuning pegs
Silence shapes where notes belong
Mesa fiddle sings in sandstone light
Ancient voice rides thermal afternoon
Mesa fiddle breathes with desert wind
Wood remembers every hand that tuned
You trace the scroll where lichen maps grow
Gambel oak roots grip the stone below
F-holes frame the vastness stretching wide
Soundpost stands like sentinel inside
Cryptobiotic crust holds its breath
Canyon wren suspends its trilling song
Time unspools like loosened tuning pegs
Silence shapes where notes belong
Mesa fiddle sings in sandstone light
Ancient voice rides thermal afternoon
Mesa fiddle breathes with desert wind
Wood remembers every hand that tuned
Bow kisses string — first note climbs the cliff
Artemisia releases sweet perfume
Harmonics bloom like penstemon flowers
Each phrase a seed in rocky soil
No concert hall could hold this resonance
No velvet seat could match this view
Just you and instrument and open sky
Composition written in dust and dew
Mesa fiddle sings in sandstone light
Ancient voice rides thermal afternoon
Mesa fiddle breathes with desert wind
Wood remembers every hand that tuned
Final cadence settles in the grain
Sun dips low behind the canyon rim
You close the case with reverent hands
Tomorrow's song waits patient within
Mesa fiddle sings in sandstone light
Ancient voice rides thermal afternoon
Mesa fiddle breathes with desert wind
Wood remembers every hand that tuned
Mesa fiddle — eternal song
Rooted deep where sun and stone belong
Last note drifts on cooling breeze
Mesa keeps the melody