View original postSo, 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.

View original postLeelanau 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.

View original postLake 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?

View original postThe 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.

View original postOne 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.

View original postAnyway ... 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?

View original postAnd 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.

View original postThe globe, clear and crystal, suspended in the air,

View original postits liquid core refracting the rearward landscape,

View original postappears as an emerald star, enclosed in its singular universe.

View original postStep back, and observe that the singular universe hangs

View original post......from a half-bent blade of grass,

View original postand the rearward landscape is in-numerous blades of grass,

View original post......each half-bent with the weight of a globe,

View original postclear and crystal dewdrops each refracting each.

View original postStep back again, and see on the bed of grass the blankets:

View original postfleece, woolen, cotton, and all arranged, galaxy like, around a stage.

View original postStanding there is a bird, brightest blue in color

View original post......and drawing a bow across a fiddle.

View original postOut in the field the audience attentively listens,

View original poststanding, sitting, or sprawling, each according to their anatomy.

View original postLook over there! a group of walruses

View original post......raising their heads for a better view;

View original postbeneath, light on her feet, a fox slinks by,

View original post......kits close behind, wary of their tusks.

View original postOr over there, in the front, two tortoises, giant green shells

View original post......serving as a perch for the hares.

View original postThe hares who were polite enough to offer a spot on their spread

View original post......in sympathy for the slow moving beasts.

View original postStep in, on a red and brown plaid blanket, two viridian parakeets,

View original post......with vivid blue breasts and crimson red crests, standing wing in wing.

View original postOne, her crest cascading down her back,

View original post......except on the left, where it's been conspicuously shaved.

View original postThe other, his crest formed to frame his face in short, curliest red.

View original postStep in more, and you'll see me.

View original post...................................................I was there, a caterpillar

View original postlime green with orange stripe. From my teensy seat,

View original postthrough the globe, clear and crystal, suspended in the air

View original poston a blade of grass ...

View original post.......................................I saw the future;

View original postthe two love birds through the liquid core refracting into an emerald star,

View original postenclosed in their own singular universe.