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