Natural Encounters offers a revealing look at Clark Lake’s animal kingdom.  It also brings you remarkable takes on our lake’s inherent beauty.  Here is an excellent example of the latter from Clark Lake resident Bill Leutz.  Be sure to read “Old Spring” below the photo.

OldSpring

Photo and poem by Bill Leutz

The old artesian spring still freely flows.
Up from deep layers of sand and gravel,
left by the ebb of pre-historic ice,
the clear water rises to feed the land.

For a hundred years or more it has spoken
to the fish and the fowl of the pristine lake;
and from each yard around the shore, its sisters
add their fluid chatter to the patter of its song.

It is too cold in summer to stand in comfort,
yet still refreshes on an August day;
too warm in winter to freeze; yet able to send
its frigid stream to feed the ice-clad lake.

The well box stands surrounded by a fringe of
daises;
while four stone steps lead down into that place
where the spring bubbles to cover the worn cobbles
with the orange hue of the iron-laden water.

Generations have known its stone-cold brew;
rich in the flavor of minerals and memory;
while the lake receives the constant overflow
as it has done for long millennia past.

May it ever flow, to keep the waters clear
and the memories dear to all who use its cup.

Clark’s Lake
July 23, 2015
W.K. Leutz

 

Share