Deep in the Quiet Wood

Deep in the Quiet Wood
James Weldon Johnson

Are you bowed down in heart?

Do you but hear the clashing discords and the din of life?
Then come away, come to the peaceful wood.
Here bathe your soul in silence.  Listen!  Now,
From out the palpitating solitude
Do you not catch, yet faint, elusive strains?
They are above, around, within you, everywhere.
Silently listen!  Clear, and still more clear, they come.
They bubble up in rippling notes, and swell in singing tones.
Now let your soul run the whole gamut of the wondrous scale
Until, responsive to the tonic chord,
It touches the diapason of God’s grand cathedral organ,
Filling earth for you with heavenly peace
And holy harmonies.

From:  Black Nature:  Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, Edited by Camille t. Dungy, ©2009 by the University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA

Clean Lakes

When I was a kid my family went to a lake for a swim.  This lake didn’t have a sandy beach or a paved boat launch.  It was just a cool lake on a hot day.  We waded out, and I stepped on something sharp.  I panicked and screamed.  I’d cut the bottom of my foot on a beer bottle.  The cut wasn’t severe, but I was so embarrassed by how I overacted, and sad that we had to go back to a hot house too soon.

Clean lakes are so important.  Not just the water in them but the bottom and shoreline as well.  Trash, invasive plants and fish, and overdeveloping the shore are all causing damage to our lakes. 

 

There are all sorts of resources to help us keep our lakes clean.  Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, WI DNR, US Dept. of Interior. just to mention a few.  But the most valuable resource to clean lakes is you.  Take responsibility for the stuff you drag to the beach.  In other words . . .

Pack out what you pack in.

 

Classification of Lakes

When I was researching lakes I picked up a very informative book at the library.  “Wisconsin Lakes” is produced by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.  I had the version printed in 1995.  The first fifteen pages were so informative and where I got all this information.

In Wisconsin the lakes are classified by how the water gets into the lake.  There are four kinds.

Drainage lakes occur along rivers and streams because all their water comes from a nearby river.  The water drains into and out of the lake into the river.

Seepage lakes get their water from precipitation and from run off.  Their levels are dependent on the rain and snow that falls into the lake and its drainage area.  This is the most common lake in Wisconsin.

Spring lakes have ground water flowing up from the bottom of the lake.  These lakes usually are the head waters (start) of a river or stream.

Drained lakes get their water from precipitation and the water is constantly flowing out.  Although the book didn’t say where it was draining to.

This little pond is a seepage.

I thought it was interesting.  Streams create lakes and are created by lakes.  I never knew that before.

When I was a kid I lived on a spring lake.  The water levels were pretty consistent.  We never had water in our basement.  Maybe because we didn’t have a basement.

Next time I go to a lake I’m going to try and figure out what kind of lake it is.

Pack out what you pack in.

Thank you

Thank You
Ross Gay

If you find yourself half naked

and barefoot in the frosty grass, hearing
again, the earth’s great, sonorous moan that says
you are the air of the now and gone, that says
all you love will turn to dust,
and will meet you there, do not
raise your fist.  Do not raise
your small voice against it.  And do not
take cover.  Instead, curl your toes
into the grass, watch the cloud
ascending from your lips.  Walk
through the garden’s dormant splendor.
Say only, thank you.
Thank you.

 

Used with permission by the author.

From:  Black Nature:  Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, Edited by Camille t. Dungy, ©2009 by the University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA

Quotes from John Muir

I’m turning this blog over to John Muir.  Enjoy.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

"Anyhow the terrors of the horrible place seldom lasted long beyond the telling; for natural faith casts out fear."

". . .Nature saw to it that besides school lessons and church lessons some of her own lessons should be learned . . ."

"How our young wondering eyes reveled in the sunny, breezy glory of the hills and the sky every particle of us thrilling and tingling with the bees and glad birds and glad streams.  Kings may be blessed; we were glorious, we were free, school cares and scoldings, hearth thrashings and flesh thrashings alike, were forgotten in the fullness of Nature’s glad wildness."

I could not agree more.

Pack out what you pack in.

 

 

[Earth, I Thank You]

[Earth, I Thank You]
Anne Spencer

Earth, I thank you

for the pleasure of your language
You’ve had a hard time
bringing it to me
from the ground
to grunt thru the noun
To all the way
feeling     seeing     smelling     touching
--awareness
I am here!

From:  Black Nature:  Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, Edited by Camille t. Dungy, ©2009 by the University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA

 

John Muir

Have you ever read about someone and wished you had lived in their time?  John Muir is that person for me right now.  Everything I read about him displays his passion about the great outdoors.

John Muir’s love of nature began in his native Scotland.  In his autobiography, “The Story of My Boyhood and Youth”, Mr. Muir tells stories about the discovery trips he and his brother would make to a nearby castle.  Climbing the walls and the trees to investigate the birds or watch the sea.  Of course, he also mentioned it was a good look out for boys from the neighboring town.

After his family moved to Wisconsin the exploration of nature continued.  Making a homestead in the middle of the woods made it easy.  He wanted to know everything about everything around him.  The animals, plants, bugs, the way the seasons affect the land.  He also showed a great interest in the way we affect the land.

That was made evident when he fought to make Yosemite a national park.  He saw the damage we were doing to the land with the roads, hotels, and farming.  He knew it needed to be protected.

I think my favorite thing about John Muir was his weapon in this fight.  Words.  Mr. Muir wrote many articles describing the land the pleading for its protection.  The people who read these articles wrote their representatives in Washington and a lobby to make Yosemite National Park was created.

There is much more to John Muir than I could ever put into a 200 word blog.  In addition to a conservationist he was a scientist, inventor, father, husband, founder of The Sierra Club and so much more.  John Muir is truly the father of the National Parks as we know them today.  Thanks Mr. Muir for sharing your passion for nature with us.

Pack out what you pack in.

 

Sources:

John Muir:  At home in the Wild, by Katherine S. Talmadge, 21^st Century Books; A division of Henry Holt and Company; New York; ©1993

People Who Have Helped the World:  John Muir, by Sally Tolan; Gareth Stevens Children’s Books, Milwaukee, WI ©1990

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth by John Muir, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI ©1965