Monday, August 3, 2015

How you live -- state parks near home

Even with taking weekends off, we're half-way through the bioregional quiz "How you live." Today we're starting the second half  with question number eleven is:

What is the closest state park to your home?

The answer is not quite a toss-up, because there's almost a 5 mile difference, according to Google maps, but we're fortunate to be very close to three magnificent Minnesota State Parks located along the wild and scenic St. Croix River. We've visited each of the three parks below several times, but I can't say we know any of them very well. That gives us something to look forward to, since they're enchanting places to visit, especially when they're not overrun with the rest of us.


Nether

By Leila Wilson 

The equilibrium of any particular aspect of nature rests on the equivalence of its opposites. —Piet Mondrian 

Some land lives
so water can comb

it into grids. This
is why lowlands

tilt still toward
the sea. This so

we call our canal
leaning horse,

hat tempting wind,
somewhere a tear

in linen where
the loom bent

a heddle. We plant
lapis in the middle

of begonia boxes
hung from our

houseboat’s sills.
At night the eels

snug against
our houseboat’s hum,

water’s warm hem.
We hear them slip

itch into our floor.
Our houseboat lilts

when the bigger boats
slide us waves.

Our concrete floats.
We’re mostly moored

to stay. In the damp
bank where the ducks

hedge weeds,
our bikes sleep.

We lean toward wind.
Our pant legs thin

from all the rain
on our knees.

From here the horizon
gauzes above us.

We are half hidden
by light. We are folds

in fog. We stand
open on the deck

and beckon the silt
to settle. We wait

for a balance so grand
that any flicker

of inverse could
pull us up to spires.


Source: Poetry (September 2008).           


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