Sprawled on a rock
In West Canada Creek
In the Southern Adirondacks
Rapids rush, rapids gush
Hands and feet in current
I drift in and out of ecstasy
Time seems suspended
I wait for a vision
The water sings to me
“Embrace your faults.
Accept them.
They are part of you.”
On this turtle-back rock
I revel in this healing gesture
A stream washes and cleanses
A man shouts from his truck
“Are you all right?”
I assure him with an arm gesture
The sunlight
Clouds barge across
I’m in paradise
If it’s wilderness we’re after
At least the sound of it,
Play the loon tape.
A forest and lake in the foreground
Hides a shopping center
Play the loon tape
Thick woods a’yonder
Vapor trails a’skyward
Play the loon tape
Starry moonless night.
Amusement park light pollution
Play the loon tape
Waterfalls in the Five Pond Wilderness
Acid rain, overflowing landfills
Play the loon tape
With every watery scene,
When wild sounds are needed
Filmmakers play the loon tape.
Having stood on shore
I watched the flow
It was time
To let go of my anger
Stepped into a river
To swim and float the current
I let go
Swept along
Tread, scull,
Bob into an eddy
I drift back into the main channel
Anger lifted
The landscape reminds us.
On a low Long Island,
A hilly moraine east to west
.
It inched forward, inched back,
Melted and evaporated in slow recession,
Leaving marks
Beaches, cobbles, clay, and sand.
In the North Country
Rounded mountains and gravel deposits
It scraped, scoured, scratched
Carried plucked boulders south.
Mid-state, long fingers
In gouged valleys,
Eskers and drumlins
Are all that remains of
Old Man Glacier.
A flat fluid place under the forces of wind a long fetch on flat liquid / water moves as wind pushes / wash-boarded / each wavelet subdivided into wave miniatures / those into smaller wavelets / waves upon more waves / rebounds against a bulkhead/ ripples over ripples – textures and sub textures / upheaval everywhere / serious water / a mysterious windless spot surrounded by ripples / moments later – replaced by corduroy / I hang out at this cove / crests, troughs, amplitudes, frequencies / no computer can simulate the ever-changing surface of water / chameleon water / we can see wind on the incessant, restless, seething water
There was the potential for water
In the chemistry of nuclei
Positive hydrogen; negative oxygen
Floating around in early universe
Obeying physical laws
Of the very beginning of
A primordial bang that started it all
The randomness, creativity, and diversity
A communion of two hydrogen and an oxygen nuclei
The electronic joining, the first water molecule
The instantaneous creation of WATER
The universe was ready for this.
Within the confines of the molten Earth
A steam cloud enveloped this new world
Cooling led to rain, to lakes, then oceans,
Life.
Across from the library
A noble beech tenaciously grips earth
Its wide base two yards across
The gray bark a frozen lava flow
Of wrinkled, aged flesh
Century old tree
Better than the books inside
Its inner self presses against smooth bark
One limb a tight tourniquet against
A strangled, muscular arm
A mighty, strong thing
Massive will power
Clean of carvings
On a late November’s early afternoon
It’s a stocky weight lifter
Hoisting itself skyward
A clean and jerk against gravity
A ready to launch rocket
For a space journey
I wish to be this tree
Silent, confident, successful
Its elephant eye branch mark
Staring at me
It glances at a passerby
Head down on their screened devise
My uncle Hugh liked to play with words. For example humidity. Because humidity had such a huge impact on me, a 77 year old, I had to process the effects in this essay.
Yesterday, I was rendered useless! My whole day was a series of long naps. I lay with small pools of sweat deposited in my eye sockets.
Turning the pages of the newspaper was no problem; the sticky side of my left underarm did the trick. No matter how many times I washed my face, it felt cool for a few minutes, then reverted to sticky, icky, discomfort. I could not wash away the humidity.
SEEDS: kidney-shaped, 5/8 inches long; on the concave curve, the portal for water to enter and start growth is on the concave center.
GERMINATION: Wet soil comes in contact with the cotyledons, tiny leaf and root. The two cotyledons begin to swell. They split open the seed coat; the tiny leaves and roots swell.
The hills in Manorville
primitive and isolated
contain certain peace
if you go, you’ll feel it
a few minutes after
leaving the parking lot
profound calm
not easy to find
places like this
easy to get lost
and find yourself
a peace that’s always available
waits for you
carries stress aloft
oak trees still as stone
gray lichen-covered boulders
here and there
waxy striped wintergreen flowers
and huge swaths of bracken fern
guaranteed
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén