The Dinosaur Diamond is a 486 mile National Scenic Byway in Utah and Colorado, U.S.A. The name comes from the shape of the route, which appoximates a diamond, and because it is the preeminent dinosaur boneyard in the world.
To be one of America’s Scenic Byways, a route must have scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archeological, or recreational significance. Dinosaur Diamond meets them all — scenic, because of its beautiful desert landscapes; natural, because of the unique rock formations in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks; and, historic, cultural, and archeological/paleontological, because of the quantity and quality of bones and tracks from the age of the dinosaurs (Dinosaur National Monument and museums.) Oh, did I not mention recreational? In fact, there are many miles of hiking trails one finds within the Diamond. In the video, at the end, you will see some of the dinosaur tracks I photographed on one hike in the area.
If you decide to take this trip, a good place to start is in Grand Junction/Fruita, Colorado, (shown in a previous post “Colorado National Monument.”) You can see more highlights of this journey on the Dinosaur Diamond National Scenic Byway in the upcoming Dinosaur Diamond, Part Two.
Notes about the song.
The song is called “Tony in Room 209” (Song number two from The Boarding House Mysteries series.) Lyrics are in the Poetic Style Trenta-Sei, (literally a 36 line poem of six “sestets”, or six line stanzas.) This style was created by the 20th Century poet John Ciardi.
Each sestet must have the rhyming pattern ABABCC, and the entire 36 line poem must cascade from sestet number one/first stanza. So, each line in the 1st stanza makes the first line in a cascading sestet. For example, Stanza 1 line 2 = Stanza 2 line 1; Stanza 1 line 3 = Stanza 3 line 1, Stanza 1 line 4 = Stanza 4 line 1, etc.
LYRICS to “TONY”
Tony is a good-looking man.
He tells himself in the mirror.
He is his number one fan.
Nothing in life he holds dearer.
There are things he cannot understand, of course.
She feels resentment and remorse.
He tells himself in the mirror. CHORUS
“What girl wouldn’t want this?”
In reality he should fear her.
Their relationship goes amiss.
The physical attraction is gone.
He thinks with a yawn.
[The physical attraction is all gone, she thinks.] Repeated for Chorus.
He is his number one fan.
He is the star of the team.
Girls call him The Man.
They fall for his routine.
He is forever brash.
Arrogance is his honorary sash.
Nothing in life he holds dearer. CHORUS
“What girl wouldn’t want this?”
In reality he should hear her.
Their relationship goes amiss.
The physical attraction is gone.
He thinks with a yawn.
[The physical attraction is all gone, she thinks.] Repeated for Chorus.
There are things he cannot understand, of course.
With himself he is preoccupied.
Believing you can dominate life as a force.
“If you’re so damn good” to himself he lied.
Expressing the childish crimes of conceits
No consideration of others’ feelings, thoughts, or beliefs.
She feels resentment and remorse.
All the pictures are overexposed.
You can only blame the source.
Someday he will be all washed up, as the story goes.
From brash and aggressive to beige and mild.
The vapid illusions of fame one has as a child.