Swimming Into Poetry

Swimming into Poetry

Films of swimming in northern bodies of water
paired with poems the water inspired

Fossil Ledges

Cold Water Superior

Swimming Along the Shore at Drummond Island

Stepping into the cool aquamarine waters of Lake Huron,

I am finally home.

Home in my body, Home in my heart,

Home in my spirit

Swimming along the craggy shore of Rocky Point

Jenny Lake

Green Pacific

Aquamarine

The aquamarine on my finger

Reminds me of swimming in

Layers of green blue water.

Aquamarine, Sea water stone,

ruled by the moon

Brims with feminine energy.

Aquamarine of healing power

Peaceful flowering

Protecting and purifying as

I move through life,

As I swim through bodies of water

Protecting and purifying

Green Pacific at Drake Bay

From up on the hill where we sleep,
the ocean murmurs its rhythm,
But as I walk down the hill to the beach,
I hear the deep rumble
And slow roar of the waves,

a surround sound symphony of the sea.

Bde Maka Ska

Cross Bay Lake

Private, peaceful and perfect was our campsite

At Cross Bay Lake, south of Ham Lake, South of the

Gunflint Trail, north of Long Island Lake. We arrive

On the last day of August when

Bde Maka Ska

Swimming in Bde Maka Ska

Lake White Earth, I come through the former

Dakota village imagining lodges on the

Graveyard hill above

Biking through Heyote’ Otunwe

Cloudman’s village, where the Dakota

People planted gardens near the lake.

Moving past visions of the past

I acknowledge and pay tribute.

I honor planting and harvesting,

Drummond

Lake Superior Video

Tea Water Lakes

Sepia toned tea stained water

Flows into these lakes.

Lakes that have no pollution

From gas motors or agricultural run off

Only canoes and kayaks

Enter these lakes

But brown water seeps in from

Golden amber compost of leaves and

Pine needles, grasses and swamps

Forests and wetlands that

Knife Lake

Determined to swim in Knife Lake one more time

Before we climb back into the loaded canoes, I

rose early. Blessed to be on a lake with such clear

deep blue water, swimming in

Aquamarine

Knife Lake

Lake Superior

When I step into the cool clean water of Gitchee Gami

Great Sea Water, I consider the superior features of Lake Superior

A big lake which has the most surface water of any lake

And holds more water that all the other great lakes

Combined—10% of the worlds surface water.

settled many thousands of years ago by the Laurel people,

Then Dakota, Minominee , Nipagon, Noauet and Anishinaabe

Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park

I am here,

Euphorically gazing up at these mountains rising out of this lake

Out of this valley. Straight up into the air.

The Fossil Ledges of Drummond Island

We walk for miles on a rutted dirt road to reach

The fossil ledges on the North Side of the island.

It is hot and sunny, butterflies and dragonflies and

sometimes biting flies as we walk. The jeeps and

4 wheelers loudly bounce by. It takes us forever, but

We know the reward at the end.

Lake Pepin

Moving down the Mississippi River by way of the Great River Road
We are sandwiched by the rocky bluffs around this glacier carved valley. As the Valley opens this Misi-Ziibi river becomes a lake. Misi-Ziibi the first people
Called this river widens into Lake Pepin. Misi-ziibi, or Mississippi was the life blood ofpeople who lived near. Today Lake Pepin is

Cross Bay

Cold Water October Superior Swimming

I acknowledge I am on Anishinabek Nation Ancestorial Land and give thanks for this land and being able to swim in this lake.
Long ago this island, Mooningwaanikaaning or
Madeleine Island was settled by people from the east who