In the Cool Dunes

In the Cool Dunes

Gifts of the west wind and the glaciers

cool dunes rise above the windy beach.

For thousands of years the dunes

grew tall and then the sand began to sing.

The sand sang of quartz from Wisconsin

and of ice mountains grinding

through, of Lake Michigan currents

and November winds that blew.

Quartz and hematite granules sang

as young girls wove garlands of wildflowers

from the wooded dunes:

bloodroot, Dutchman’s breeches, hepatica,

trillium, violets and Pitcher’s thistle.

They played in dappled shadows under

sassafras, witch hazel and choke cherry trees.

Bewitched, young boys carved their names

beside names of the girls they loved

in the smooth gray bark of beech trees

while silent deer and young wood ducks watched

in the cool dunes.

                                                         --Barbara Spring

excerpt from Sophia's Lost and Found: Poems of Above and Below

Beech Trees