The Dynamic Great Lakes

A Critically Acclaimed non-fiction book about the five Great Lakes

The Dynamic Great Lakes is available in the new edition at Barnes & Noble online or in stores. It is also available at Schuler Books and Music, The Bookman, Amazon.com (paper and Kindle edition) and many other fine stores.

Fall is in the Air

In the fall snow fences are installed to keep the sand from blowing across the road. In the late afternoon sunlight the fence casts shadows and the blown sand casts a shadow. In the distance is the pier with its fog house and light house. That’s how it is on the beach in Grand Haven, Michigan. There is a tang in the air and the fallen leaves crunch underfoot.

The Dynamic Great Lakes is available on Kindle

Now available on Kindle

To learn about the Great Lakes and their interesting features, The Dynamic Great Lakes is for you.

Now updated in a fourth edition, Amazon has made the book available on the Kindle e reader as well as in paperback. The book is concise and suitable for all readers.

The Singing Sands

The sand on Lake Michigan has a high content of quartz that causes a high pitched sound when a toe is dragged across the wet sand. The little sprite pictured above is enjoying the beach immensely. Keep an eye on little ones at the beach. Keep a watch for rip current warnings. If a red flag is flying, no one should go in the water.

Before the Storm

Before the Storm
Seagulls slide sideways on airstreams,
whitecaps boil on deep marine blue.
Curdled clouds crown the horizon.
The house creaks.

Light shifts as ultramarine turns
gunmetal gray.
The air feels heavy, tense
then large drops spatter
stream down window panes.

Beach grasses grip the sodden sands.
The lake receives its prodigal freshwater
never asking where it has been.

After the storm, cold waves roll in slowly.
High above, a skull white moon:
below silent sturgeon move to
ancient rhythms.

Excerpted from Sophia’s Lost and Found: Poems of Above and Below

Great Lakes Influences

I live on Lake Michigan and I have lived on Lake Huron. I have traveled to Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario where I watched a meteor shower while camping. All this freshwater has led me to write. I wrote a non fiction book, The Dynamic Great Lakes that is critically acclaimed. It shows how each lake has changed and changes. It is especially about what lies under water. These lakes are magnificent.

I have included many Great Lakes inspired poems in my books, The Wilderness Within and Sophia’s Lost and Found: Poems of Above and Below

The House Built on Sand

water color by Barbara Spring

The House Built on Sand

I have lived in this house built on sand
for quite a few years.
I begin to understand
why sand sings underfoot.

Once part of the main
each grain knows
Earth’s epochs of fire and ice
floods and dawns filled with birdsong
salt seas then sweet water seas.

Our house on the dunes
receives news whispered
through clear quartz sand.
Heartbeats, drumbeats, shaman flight.
Night.

Buoyed on night winds
that twist around my house
I wander colorful countries
wearing Joseph’s many colored coat.
I float.

In a tumult of stars
Venus blazes a path across the sky
shines in each quartz granule
passes over distant lands
I see in dreams.

Awake or asleep in my house built on sand
I go everywhere.

www.freewebs.com/barbaraspring

Wood Ducks Leap From Trees

In a climax forest on a dune near Lake Michigan, the cry of wood ducks rings through the air. It sounds like a squeaky wheel. Look up. Wood ducks nest in the holes of trees. When it is time for their young to leave the nest, they leap into the air and land on the ground. I drew this picture of a wood duck about to leap. From the ground, they follow their mother to water. They are the most colorful ducks found in the Great Lakes region.

Singing Sands of West Michigan

The Singing Sands

The singing sands of West Michigan are so called because of their high levels of quartz. When a toe or shoe is dragged across wet sands a high pitched sound may be heard. These sands really do sing. Read more about the geology of the Great Lakes in my book The Dynamic Great Lakes available at Barnes & Noble and many other online book stores.

At Palisades Nuclear Power Plant

Waves lap the sand the sand the sand
and while we keep silence, the silence of Annabelle Lee
a plutonium fuel rod ticks away
stored on the dunes where we used to play.
We played Elephants on a Spider Web
Sword of Damocles
Go Fish.
Peaceful atoms take millennia
to decay.
–Barbara Spring

excerpted from my book, The Wilderness Within