:: Poetry
Dunes Lines
(after J. Ronald Engel)
By David Hoppe
1.
Sand surrounded by black oak forest
Ancient beach
Prairies and marshes teeming with birds
Stands of northern white pine mixed with hawthorn and cottonwood
25 miles from Gary to Michigan City
Northwesterly winds
Advancing 60 feet per year
Lying on climactic boundaries
The elements of many regions
A new, old world
North, south, east and west
Four points of the compass converge
The only mountains that we'll ever have
Like symbols of eternity
The perfect order of the world
Moving slowly, silently, irresistibly
Signature of time and eternity
Overnight they are gone
2.
Grasshopper danced at the wedding of the Manitou
Getting lost accidentally on purpose
Along the beach
Bright sun overhead
In contact with beginnings
Crossing the trembling ground
One the verge of something deep
Grains of sand falling through fingers
Infinite number of particles
Like a democracy
So different and the same
Wind, sun, water, earth
Slowly filled by vegetation
Pushed south by glacier and left behind
Snakes, poison sumac, mosquitoes, carnivorous plants
Tamarack and cedar trees
Whisper above brown waters
Inscrutable wilderness, distant lightning
O, do it, do it again
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