muehl springs is largely a sedge meadow formed by springs, with some woods nearby. the whole is situated on rolling ground moraine and very near the more dramatic interlobate moraine that features so dominantly in the area.
it was a nice, quiet visit with mushrooms, mayapple, and lots of sedge.
a.
birch and oak share
a sloping glacier’s gift
of gravel and ten-thousand years
b.
the sedge-maze and cattail alleys
we defer to crane and goose—
redwing flashing trill
rhine center bog is a bog lake formed within a kettle, the depression left by a melting block of buried glacial ice. tamaracks to the south, a mesic hardwood forest on the uplands, and dense, boggy ground all about.
my trip was punctuated by light submersion in the peat (with appropriate footwear) and by the leavings of animal and bird corpses—the latter a poignant reminder of the aspect of nature walks we don’t often like to think about. and caution: a few pictures of the remains (not too graphic) appear after the final three-liner.
(note again: still on the excursion with the flip-phone, so photos aren’t all that clear.)
a.
the bog exhales with each step
under marsh wren’s tone-spray,
here where piling tussocks reign
b.
skunk cabbage
deer scat:
sphagnum perch
c.
yellow birch conspired with moss,
offered an island for human bones—
no names for birds all around
d.
fungus and tooth
would make quick work
if i fell and didn’t get up
positioned on a broad beach of glacial lake algonquin, cedar grove hawk research station is an active area for raptor migrations and has served as a banding and recording site for research for over 60 years. i learned that it has the longest running activity of banding and recording in north america, which is something.
there were a great many birds singing the day i visited, and while i’ll admit i couldn’t identify a number of them by their songs, i’ll also submit i simply didn’t care as i sat on the hillside in the morning air.
as this is a more sensitive site, i’m very grateful to the wisconsin dnr for permitting me to visit!
(note again: photo quality won’t be as high as normal here and in the next few posts, as i used the old flip-phone for this excursion. though in ways i like the lower res for this project sometimes; it seems to fit the immediacy and spontaneity i’m aiming for here. and i like to use old technology anyway—i still listen to audio cassettes and things like that…)
a.
past sand pipers
over graves to this place
where the downed trees lie
b.
i keep to the ridgeline
shore of a now-gone sea
grown thick and hoary with birdsong
c.
thorns pierce on hillside
gathering damp toward the pines
warbling on above
amsterdam dunes preservation area is a 328-acre preserve made up of lake michigan shoreline, rare sand dunes, forest, and wetland areas. somehow it avoided development. there’s also a little playground. direct access to dunes on lake michigan this far south in wisconsin is uncommon, so thanks to sheboygan county for tending this piece of land and opening it to the public!
(note: photo quality won’t be as high as normal here and in the next few posts, as i used the old flip-phone for this excursion. though in ways i like the lower res for this project sometimes; it seems to fit the immediacy and spontaneity i’m aiming for here. and i like to use old technology anyway—i still listen to audio cassettes and things like that…)
a.
spine against dune
cormorants over waves
the sun shining now
b.
thinnest ray of silver water—
field shifting slow downhill—
finds a linear tidal pool
Yesterday, the second issue of the new journal Bez & Co appeared, and it included my “Sketch for Desert Fathers.” It’s a short lyric set at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California and features Paul the Hermit, St. Guthlac of Crowland, and an unabashed Stellar’s Jay. I don’t generally make “joke” poems, but I suppose this is as close as I come!
You can read it here, or listen to it below.
anyone who’s kept up here will know cudahy woods a bit already, but suffice to say: cudahy woods is a 40-acre parcel of land in milwaukee county that somehow escaped the axe and plow. it’s a beech-maple forest with an unnamed stream running thru, and airplanes skirting by nigh-constantly from mitchell int’l airport.
it’s also where i first started this project and started learning about spring ephemerals, so it has a special place in my heart. so this is kind of an “anniversary post,” and i already found two new flowers i hadn’t identified last spring!
a.
purslane swell delicate
amid a sea of trout
the forest floor vibrant
springbeauty (purslane family)
trout lily sea
mayapple
glory of snow
trouts about to burst
b.
monks’ stiff hoods in the muck
down from cowslip grove
chart stream bed’s shimmer
skunk cabbage
marsh marigold/cowslip
a stream with no name
young prairie is a sizable remnant wet-mesic prairie in the southern kettle moraine area, though it was pretty dry given our general lack of rain the last while in this part of wisconsin.
dthis early, there was little flashy growth to call our attention, but seeing the very beginnings of this year’s prairie grass was a subtle excitement. just the muffled crunch of last year’s vegetation and an open-air walk were enough to make the early trip worthwhile.
this trip also marked our last sna in walworth county!
a.
the birds are building
over strawed thatch
green blades shoot
b.
the cups of lichen children
will forage the strewn bark
living bare to the sun
kettle moraine oak opening is very much what it sounds like, though there’s plenty of oak woods too. another sna in the interlobate moraine area between two fingers of the last glaciation (the lake michigan lobe and green bay lobe), the rolling and tumbling topography between steep ridges and kettle holes is always a delight to meander thru. maintaining the oak opening and small prairies on the knobs takes some doing, and we visited (it looks like) a week or two after a prescribed burn. the smell was fertile.
saw our first round-lobed liverwort too—the hairs on the scape don’t come across in the photos, but they were thick with white hairs, and heavy-laden with pollen.
a.
char and ash dust the ground
below a cardinal’s rapid song
the gravelly knob’s singed scent
b.
belly-splayed
on bald bluff
sun basking
c.
a great relief of land
mossed arms of oak
reach out over liverwort
the seven bridges trail in grant park in south milwaukee winds thru woods and ravines leading down to a stone-strewn beach on lake michigan. the first spring ephemerals are showing their blooms now, though they weren’t open yet. a very wet and grey day, perfect for spring woods and water. new life!
bonus: i learned on this trip that “lannon stone” is a kind of dolomite limestone quarried from the 1830s in lannon, wisconsin in waukesha county (featured under the tiny succulents and moss in the photo above). i grew up around the block from “the lannon stone motel” in janesville, and my dad lived there for a bit when he first moved to wisconsin from new york. i had never even wondered what the motel’s name meant—familiarity breeds a lack of curiosity, i suppose. that little spot on racine st. in janesville feels richer in my mind today.
a.
snowdrops rejoice in leaf-litter,
grey air damp and draping
the scape’s pendulous gift
b.
lannon stone penthouse bulbs
showering bare soil
with scilla bells nodding
three bridges park in milwaukee, wisconsin is a great little prairie on reclaimed land in what was once a wild rice marsh and then a rail-yard. it stretches 24 acres along the menomonee river, and is a welcome oasis in the city.
a.
waves dry rattling
and unrelenting wind
the prairie starts to wake
b.
frozen frog bodies
with webbed toes hang
down below the mallards
c.
duck bill scours
and scuttles the seaweed
feathers floating
Jacob Riyeff 