We start by walking

forested crescent bay rising to steep Precambrian peninsula
of pitchblende
                                      & granite
                                      cut by diabase dikes

fractured & mineralized with pink-calcite chlorite & hematite

sand & cobble beach below

rocks sorted into piles of similar size by waves
some places persist from their beginnings
some cruelty escapes without our wanting


            ~


Fuel boilers with sturgeon then in plenty
removal of bodies for study
or something other
                                    darkened the water with its schools

                                    iron in the mountains
from algae from     photosynthetic cyanobacteria
their great blooms create an oxygen-atmosphere

rendering the mineral insoluble

sea     heaved into mountain range
rendering us


            ~


White birch burns in an Army-issue barrel-stove
dog sleeps behind desk
                                                surrounded by beach rock
on windowsills     specimens from orogenies
or tectonic plate separation

                                    magma surfaces & cools
becomes igneous     wears away into sediments
into sedimentary     a slow metamorphosis

a corruption of rock into language

Superior in light rain blurs into sky


            ~


Green frog startles from beach into water
swims quickly under the clear


            ~


Lamp-bright sleep     like a child
woods dark around me
                                           rocky headland ascent
north of camp     & a southern descent to shore

scramble to the crow’s nest for sunset
& find it obscured by trees

without dog     a ruffed grouse barred & crested
I step further in & flush more from the branches

reconfigure this shore for the present
                             landscape-scale     blind to discontinuity

rock-persistence     bird-indicator
golden-crowned kinglet & yellow-bellied flycatcher

dog impatient     as I try to spot the chickadee
                                                   I know is above too

warbler weight-gain slowed by neonicotinoids
cause delays in travel in

a review of intentions but not their consequences


            ~


Trace uranium found in the pitchblende
sources limited & mining short-lived

atom knowledge
distorts real & imagined


            ~


Ojibwe land     gichi gami

& another’s before that

locate commonwealth in
sea & syllable


            ~


Sand everywhere     morning white pine mist
floating over point     ocean-sound

mined craters on overlook
                                    highway noise through trees
pink-rock swirls overlayed
with moss lichen & pine needles     feldspar
makes red & epidote green

frog road-crossing
crow shredding carrion     blue jay flock emptying
burnt-red-brown fur on coyote dead roadside


            ~


The crystalline basement    vast lifeless ocean
with chains of volcanoes & volcanic islands
                                                built up over thousands of eruptions

continental crusts of granite schist & gneiss
on my drive back lake & low clouds separated
in blackness by a thin mantle of coral-red


            ~


Orphan Lake hike to Superior cobble beach
waves receding sound like static over rock


            ~


Dog inspects
                                    fish-head bobbing in foam

at Alona River’s pebbled mouth


            ~


Pine needle in tea    
dog curl

lichen     stone into green
no mechanism to filter

slow growing bioaccumulators

common-freckled-pelt smooth-rock-tripe & pitted-beard drape
as forest shifts from Great Lakes-St. Lawrence

to Boreal

to north


            ~


We climb

past ancient lake terraces eroded & pitted
with intrusions from some later shifting

my position     a shifting particle     only known

through this measure     tree sparrow scatter
on picnic table     one immature golden plover
on the other side of the sandy river-delta
a man fishes for salmon

another body to operate the instrument


            ~


Red throated loon in Alona Bay     white & gray
I pick the solid gray stone fine-grained
a texture to obliterate decay


            ~


First night where the moon has shone
on water     making a bridge over waves as they break
over rock     drum of trucks passing


            ~


Asbestos fibers circulate Superior
from taconite tailings


            ~


Another fire before sun
star-remainder as I arrange wood     boil water
for coffee     the line an altered forest
unaccustomed to such blackness


            ~


Gray shimmering schist with a band of white quartz encircling
black crowns cone-clipped by squirrels
balsam fir pointing above

place-formation in movement

white-winged crossbills frantic feeding
in spruce over camp     sharp
chorus rattle

                        coiled carbonaceous
filaments two-feet long on bedding surfaces
spherical sporelike bodies two billion years old     carved in chert


            ~


Notebook corners grayed from ash on fingers
first juncos of season


            ~


A walk each day
                        power differentials

in dog step & boot slip

I insisted certain things about place & our position in it
an implication in the human geometry


            ~


Wake before light     moon sediment     stars
radial     areas of intense compression     folding
faulting heating     phenomena for making

woodsmoke-skin     rock-knowledge     home
daughter    settles the heaps of stones I’ve brought