the seasons change, Minnehaha. . .

Summer Solstice ’10

in the morning
clouds grey the Sun and keep it from us,
just as the city puts itself between us & nature,
the Sun reduced to ambient lighting
as if the outside world is just a room made solely for us,

when we follow Minnehaha Creek
from its falls at the rim of the city








to the grandness of the young Mississippi,
rain lightly spatters on us as if to connect sky & river
with a wet sheen that my sweat joins,
the river mighty and beautiful but also hazed and warm,
its banks lush with greening leaves, though few flowers,
the season feels hot as if it’s been working,

for most of the day we stay inside
for visiting, a nap, video games, meals,

after supper we stop to get ice cream
and we savor a brilliant Sun in a cloudless sky
and cold sweet treats
while a waxing Moon shows itself high to the west, 2/3 full,

on the way back to the car
a thirty foot linden tree erupts in flower above me,
bathed by the bright spotlight of a lowering Sun,
linden flowers all a rich yellow











like soft flames amid the rich green of the linden leaves,
a tower of glory, that, in its way, celebrates the Sun at its zenith,








the seasons turn today
and I love to lift up my eyes
unto the yellowed silver linden,
all a-blaze above me.

by Henry Walker
June 21, ’10