Superior

(With apologies to Mr. Longfellow.)

I.

Here I stand by Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
What we now call Lake Superior,
Still a shining Big-Sea-Water.
Here I bend and touch the waters,
Sometimes peaceful, sometimes roiling.
O Superior! Lovely monster . . .
Colored pebbles grace your shoreline,
Rainbowed cliffs adorn your neckline.
How the recent years have changed you!
Where once softly trod the stranger,
Paper mills disgorge their vapors,
Power plants sweat out their wattage,
Sodium lamps dispel the darkness,
Titan-rafts with hearts of fire
Spew white clouds and churn your channels.
Men have altered you forever,
Or until their races perish;
Then you may resume your rhythms:
Short and strong, your native heartbeats
Pound the cliffs and sandy inlets.
May your forests once more thicken,
Shelter deer and grouse and rabbit,
Cast their gloom across these waters.

II.

Once, the ice sheets carved your image,
Carved a basin for their waters.
Once, the land was village-dotted--
Small encampments flecked its surface,
Sacred fires hazed the lowlands.
Long before invaders settled,
Misapplied their names to mountains,
Holy sounds like whispered mantras
Wafted from the lips of elders:
Booming thunderbird Anemki,
Dire cannibal Windigo,
Horned Misshepezhieu, so fickle,
Lord Manitou, supreme godhead;
Spirit names and names of giants
Came before the land-usurpers,
Now just echos heard by tourists.
Yet the native-born remember,
Kindle yet their sacred fires,
Speak the names not quite forgotten,
Build canoes with bark and tree-pitch,
Bead the belts and beat the drumheads,
Keep alive the timeless customs.

III.

How the black and red rock chasms
Boil and froth with amber liquid.
Liquid bronze: the ale-foamed waters
Splash and join the Big-Sea-Water,
Where the demon lurks and wallows,
Belches fog banks--tongues of madness--
Blows them toward the nonappeasers,
Twists the navigators' reason,
Pushes ships against their cousins,
Grounds them on the murky shoal-banks.
Or, with wind-blown waves it swamps them,
Breaks in two like twigs the barges,
Swallows crewmen whole like minnows,
Silences their cries for mercy.
Graveyard for the interlopers,
Graves of seamen, graves of steamers,
Freighters, sailboats--all have foundered
In the moody Chief of Waters.

IV.

Though the moderns harvest timber,
Dig up copper, build their cities,
Still the birch and spruce and cedar
Thrive along the jagged coastlines.
Moss bedecks the rock-strewn woodlands,
Moose patrol the soggy marshes;
Red-capped tappers, jays, and finches
Flit about the twilit pine groves.
Trout in moonlight leap and waggle;
Swifts and ducklings swoop and paddle.
Lonesome loon-calls mix with frog-peeps;
Trains repeat the wolf-pack's wailings.
O Superior, raw and fertile,
Everlasting are your blessings:
Purity--your greatest virtue,
Clarity--your finest lesson;
Teach the future generations
Modesty amid the grandeur,
Decency within the splendor.
May our children kiss your waters,
Rest their heads on hemlock pillows,
Dream of Nature's Realm resurgent--
Bureaucrats expelled forever,
Dairy Queens and Walmarts vanquished--
May they love you like a parent,
Strive to keep you pure and fruitful.