So, last weekend I had the chance to attend a friend's wedding, held in the town of Suttons Bay, MI, on the shores of Lake Michigan. The wedding was a pretty amazing affair, held on land that the groom's family owned in the area. It was also my first chance to visit that part of the country.

Leelanau County is a beautiful place to visit, with numerous orchards, quaint villages, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I actually went camping for the first time in twenty years on North Manitou Island. That was part of the bachelor's party. Well it was the bachelor's party, 16 men camping on an uninhabited island. I don't think we could've got ourselves into trouble if we wanted to.

Lake Michigan's water is chilly, but not as bad as the Atlantic is in the state of Maine. I estimated it was around 65°F-70°F, room temperature or just below. What was so weird was how you could walk into the water, and it would remain at waste deep depth even several hundred feet from the shore, and the water's so clear too. It's really some of the best swimming if you can get past the chill. I wonder if this is common everywhere in the great lakes, or just some parts?

The other interesting things is how the shorelines, especially in the Sleeping Bear Dunes, were so similar to barrier islands or Cape Cod. Sandy beaches followed by grasses, wildflowers and other short, stout vegetation, and then the trees. It made me recall Fire Island, NY, though the sand dunes in Michigan are incredibly bigger, some up to 300 or 400 feet high.

One of the nicest things about the vacation was not having the computer or phone with me. I used a computer for about 15 minutes in the entire week, and only occasionally checked my phone over the weekend. Nothing beats losing that feeling that you have to check your e-mail or phone messages, or you have to get in contact with this or that person. I also had a chance to get back into writing poetry while I was there.

Anyway ... before I share that. Did any of you get to go on any good vacations this summer? Where? What for? Would you recommend the vacation to others?

And poetry time! I'll give a bit of back story first. I met the bride in Spring 2011, through school (I was completing my MA at the time). The first time we hung out (and also one of the first times she went on a date with the groom) was that June, at a concert in Prospect Park (in Brooklyn). Andrew Bird was the musician of the concert, a violinist. So this poem is about that.

At a Bird Concert, June, 2011

The globe, clear and crystal, suspended in the air,
its liquid core refracting the rearward landscape,
appears as an emerald star, enclosed in its singular universe.

Step back, and observe that the singular universe hangs
......from a half-bent blade of grass,
and the rearward landscape is in-numerous blades of grass,
......each half-bent with the weight of a globe,
clear and crystal dewdrops each refracting each.

Step back again, and see on the bed of grass the blankets:
fleece, woolen, cotton, and all arranged, galaxy like, around a stage.
Standing there is a bird, brightest blue in color
......and drawing a bow across a fiddle.

Out in the field the audience attentively listens,
standing, sitting, or sprawling, each according to their anatomy.

Look over there! a group of walruses
......raising their heads for a better view;
beneath, light on her feet, a fox slinks by,
......kits close behind, wary of their tusks.

Or over there, in the front, two tortoises, giant green shells
......serving as a perch for the hares.
The hares who were polite enough to offer a spot on their spread
......in sympathy for the slow moving beasts.

Step in, on a red and brown plaid blanket, two viridian parakeets,
......with vivid blue breasts and crimson red crests, standing wing in wing.
One, her crest cascading down her back,
......except on the left, where it's been conspicuously shaved.
The other, his crest formed to frame his face in short, curliest red.

Step in more, and you'll see me.
...................................................I was there, a caterpillar
lime green with orange stripe. From my teensy seat,
through the globe, clear and crystal, suspended in the air
on a blade of grass ...

.......................................I saw the future;
the two love birds through the liquid core refracting into an emerald star,
enclosed in their own singular universe.