LAKE-SIGHED

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." ~ Loren Eiseley

I am an unapologetic limnophile. Until I sat down to write this post, I didn’t realize that is what I am. I never knew there was a word — a specific word — for a lover of lakes, but there is: limnophile. That’s me.

When I was a kid, my family went on vacation every year to Crowley Lake in California. We actually stayed in Bishop, a small town about 30 minutes from Crowley, which (by the way) has a fabulous bakery: Schat’s - home of the original Sheepherder Bread, but I digress.

We went there because my father was an avid freshwater fisherman. There was nothing he enjoyed more than spending hours lounging in a boat with a fishing rod in hand. It was made even better if he caught a rainbow trout or German brown, but even when the fish weren’t biting, he was in heaven.

I loved the lake even though it is not a particularly pretty lake. It isn’t shrouded in pine trees or surrounded by looming craggy mountains. It is just a large body of water, but it is blue and can morph from placid to wild in moments when the wind whips up.

In my teens, I regularly spent summertime vacationing with my best friend, Margie, and her family at Lake Arrowhead, CA. We waterskied and swam and just had fun by the lake and its accompanying village. This lake is a pretty one, nestled among the aroma and beauty of a pine forest.

Later in life, I often went camping and boating with friends and family at several California lakes: Lake Tahoe, June Lake, Mammoth Lakes, Lake Cachuma, and Castaic Lake. All of my most warmly remembered vacations occurred beside, in, or atop a lake. All my city-bound life, I dreamed about living by a lake.

Amazingly, in 2018 that dream came true, in Traverse City, MI. It is a very very big lake - a Great Lake, in fact, and a great life as well. I am loving every moment as a limnophile and everything that comes with it. Today’s poem is a bit about that.

LAKE-SIGHED

Looking inside my eyes
I can see what lies outside
but is bubbling within me
and swallowed whole
being my heart my pulse
my lungs my every part
so totally immersed am I and
floating with my stomach full of
sparkling sun-fall blazing beams
simmering on my lake,
my lake my front yard
but so much more
it is my life’s blood
blue and lavender
turning blood red
and orange and yellow
heating my brain with
its very vividness
even it’s unrefined wild side
tempests with crashing
waves and wickedness
quickens my soul
with violence and
churning beauty
the lake
whether calm or cruel
runs through my veins
and when sun sets its
fire from the firmament
I am filled with gratitude
satiating my never waning
desire to live where
water glows.