sna poems, series anthropocenum #19 (late entry): bender park

bender park is an apparently fairly developed and now returning to a rewilded state piece of land on lake michigan in oak creek. it abuts the oak creek power plant and there are some precipitous drops down to the lake.

this was a “let’s not go to work just yet” walk from last december. but i lost the pomes i had written shortly thereafter, so i bagged this entry. this morning i went to open up a book i hadn’t looked at since last december and—what do you know—there were the pomes tucked inside marking my page from late last year. so, i thought i’d pull the photos back up and give bender park its due. here we go.

a.

siren call across

the prairie

the asci don’t mind

b.

curls and curves of drift

these grey skies—

grass’s heavy scent

c.

in the juniper,

sparrow call:

thousand-year moments

sna poems, supplementum anthropocenum #9: veterans park lagoon

veterans park lies along milwaukee’s lakefront and includes monuments to honor veterans, trails, shoreline, and a 14-acre lagoon. the lagoon is a favorite hangout for a number of water birds, and last year my wife and i discovered that green herons and black-crowned night herons find it attractive as a fishing hole.

this year there’s a siege of night herons hanging out, but who knows if they’ll linger over the summer (here’s hoping for our sake). i’ve visited them a couple times, and it’s mighty impressive just being in their vicinity as they roost and fly about. the lower water level lately has enabled me to walk out under their roosting trees over the water’s edge.

as i don’t have a “serious” camera, i’m not able to get really good shots of them, but i decided when i started doing this that i wasn’t going to let tech limitations prevent me from sharing and writing about things that i enjoy. so, not great photos, but i’m too excited about the night herons to care! 🙂 (tho’ p.s., i’m starting to look at serious cameras…)

a.

high above her siege

perched on a single short leg

the afternoon hers

b.

quiet over the floodplain,

the eye is red. plume

tittering in bough breeze

state natural area poems #2a: warnimont bluff fens

[this first installment reflects that i was not permitted access to the actual site–for my own safety and the safety of the rare and delicate plant communities that inhabit the bluffs]

 

your calcareous fens too rare

the dnr won’t let us find you–

i respect the hell out of that

 

Warnimont Bluff Fens–home to a thriving community of state-threatened False Asphodel

warnimont bluffs

warn 2

Thanks again, Milwaukee County, for caring for this land for us.