Lake McDonald

Sitting on her beach,
smooth Rock beneath me.
Gazing out over her
miles of water,
shimmering green in the sun
like fresh-cut emerald.

Older than men,
majestic lady sits calling,
wrapped in a veil.
Mountains crown you
Queen of the North.

You reign supreme.
I sit at your feet,
a mere child, awed.
learning from silence
lessons in beauty.

Teach me again, oh lady,
allow me the pleasure
you bring,
Mother Nature's daughter
makes my heart sing.

Paul Jablonski

Explanations

Global warming, glaciers melting,
Lake McDonald sure to rise.
Or will evaporation rule?
The scientists hypothesize.

Measuring gauges fill pages and pages
Of data records, day by day,
Differences identified,
Anomalies explained away.

A wooden boat on depths afloat,
The lodgepole pines, both charred and green,
People, part of nature too,
Serene, serene, clear and serene.

A mile by ten, and back again,
The jammers drive along her shore;
Then in late season, for scarce reason,
McDonald rose a tenth-inch more.

Park geologists, meteorologists,
None could find a proper cause
For the sudden rise - it jumped in size -
Violating all known laws.

But we the crew, who loved and knew,
Perceive an answer in our wake:
The man who could lift a hundred pounds
Now lifts an entire lake.

In Memory of Paul J. Jablonski

B. Wait, August 22, 2007