Summary Of Our River Canyon By Paul Halupa

In "Natural Bridge/Rogue River Canyon," Paul Halupa draws a picture of two dominate forces, a wall of lava and a river. Both the lava and the river are metaphors, lava being the inevitable end of life and the river is the present life that is unstoppable; raging towards the lava. Halupa overall tone isn't sad, but understanding. He understands that people work hard all their life; moving fast and not appreciating how short life is. Halupa’s poem expresses the human condition is like a match, it has an explosive start, then stays consistent till it slows down and burns out. Halupa illustrates how life goes by extremely quickly just with the first line of the poem,”Life surges incessantly towards impediment” (Line 1). The reader could take this first

Halupa reiterates this imagery in line seven, “And my reflection is dominated by water”. Halupa reflection and the water are also metaphors, in which the reflection is Halupa’s life surrounded by people living fast with the mindset that they will live forever. He continues with yet another metaphor of whether the river will clash with the lava or if it will go around it, “The wall of lava and its field might produce a lake / Or bow the river wide around and make / A revision” (Lines 9-12). This image that Halupa creates of life being ended short or the flow of life will continue around the obstacle. Although in the next line, he reassure the reader that avoiding the lava early in life does not mean that it won’t devour the river in the end. Halupa writes, “In its course, delay it’s certain bubbling intention / To go forward, But it is invention” (Lines 13-14). In the end of life, the river hits the wall of lava hard and is pushed below it, and the memory of it is forgotten. Halupa expounds the end of