Shrouded Shore: The Many Musings of Thom Singleton

  Time for Haiku Who knows where time goes Vanishes into nothing Or melts into tears People come and go Civilizations rise...fall Sun rises, sun sets Two loving hearts merge History repeats itself New baby is born The clock ticks and tocks Woman able to give birth Life begets new life Seedling sprouts through soil Maple reaches for the light Makes our pancakes sweet Worker punches in The engine of industry Thanks for your service To keep fears at bay Glowering idols of stone What are our idols? Sun rises and shines Sets into shadowy night Moon, thanks for your light Happens by itself One’s heart just keeps on beating The rhythm of life Mountains rise and fall Just ticks in eternity Humans are just blips

  Time for Compassion A girl sobbing in her bitter night A man homeless, talking to himself on a cold park bench End-of-love handwriting on a motel wall A man with a battered heart on the edge of his demise Children, fleeing the horror of war, met by a wall and separation from their parents Child-wraiths starving due to conflict and famine Thousands dying due to a preventable pandemic So much need for compassion in this world, so much need

  Winter Haiku White shrouds winter woods Freezing fog in the forest Trees bent like old men

  No, You Say?  Ever notice that there are many more idioms including the word “no” than there are the word “yes.” Read this… Let’s have a no-holds-barred discussion.  No problem. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. Well, I think there’s no business like show business. That’s a no-brainer. I especially like the portrayal of a no-account in the play “No Man is an Island.” No comment, except I thought he was no great shakes. No more free lunch for you! Like his acting? No can do. Well, I see you have no love lost for him. Yeah, he’s a no-good in my book. No one knows the trouble I’ve seen. My life has been a no man’s land. Like him? No way. I can out-act him any day. I see that, for you, no news is good news.  Yes, no rest for the weary. Maybe we’re being too negative. Let’s say “yes” more in our conversation. No way, Jose. Oops, I mean, “Yes...I guess.”

  Ol’ George, Age 4, Wonders About Ol’ Jordy, Age 35 While George’s Mom, Amy, drove him to school the other day, this conversation transpired… Mom: “Do you want to look for jerseys after school today?” George: “Yes, a Packers jersey...Jordy Nelson!” Mom: “Jordy Nelson is retired. His jersey might be hard to find.” George: “OK, Aaron Rodgers.” A little later, as they passed a construction site, George continued the conversation… George: “Is that a hospital?” Mom: “No, they’re building a retirement home.” George: “Does Jordy Nelson live there?”

  The Snow Moon The waxing moon - it is the Moon of Snow - Alit with a cold fire makes snow glow. The owl sings his song mournful and slow. For his prey it is a dirge of woe. The Northwind, so strong it does blow, Takes the mercury down so far below.

  Land Coming Up For Air The Arctic People have a word for it, puikartug. Floating above the distant horizon, a mirage, A hazy apparition, as if the sky were lifting the land. Swift called it Laputa, Where the thinkers and artists and dreamers live, An island in the sky. The practical Inuit call it puikartuq, Land coming up for air.

  Haiku While Crossing the Fox Crossed the Fox River Brilliance diffused in fog Sun lost in frost smoke

  Memory of Moonlight Went to close the curtains. Looked out upon the glowing snow, The light of the waxing moon. Moonlight, they say, causes us to sleep less, Perhaps a throw-back, a cell memory,  Of our existence for thousands of years, Pre-electric light. When light from the moon extended our time, Our time to hunt, to gather, to survive. If true, to close the curtains will not close out the memory. The memory of the moonlight is in me.

  Gila Cliff Dwellings On a trip several years ago to see friends in New Mexico and family in California, we made a swing into the backcountry of New Mexico to experience this national monument. It was a site my Out-West-loving Dad had enjoyed years before. The cliff dwelling is located in a recess in a rock wall high above the canyon floor with access by ladder. The shallow cavern contains some 40 rooms. A guide informed us that artifacts obtained here, beautifully designed ceramic bowls, were unique to the years from 1100 to 1300AD. Trade goods from as far away as Central America, macaw feathers, for example, were also uncovered here. We were given the tour inside the cavern, and saw up-close the rooms with unique, T-shaped door openings and stone grain storage bins. One wall near the dwellings was decorated with pictographs, ancient paintings in ochre. It was an interesting glimpse into the life of Southwestern people from the mystical past.

  Effigy Mounds National Monument Southern Wisconsin and eastern Iowa were the two regions where effigy mounds - low hills in the shape of animals and birds - were built by native people. One place where these mounds have been preserved is Effigy Mounds National Monument, located along bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in Iowa. The wooded park preserves over 200 mounds dating from c.500 BC to c.1100 AD. 31 of the mounds are in the shape of animals - effigy mounds.  Of the 31, bird and bear shapes are most numerous. Indigenous stories tell that the Bear is the guardian of the Earth, and the Bird is the guardian of the Sky. It is theorized that the people made these mounds  to connect to their Earth And Sky guardians.  A walk in these bluffs is a journey into the customs and beliefs of an ancient people.

  Hot Springs National Park On a trip to see our California family one year, Patti and I decided to take in some of the national parks along the way. One unusual park was Hot Springs in Arkansas. It’s unusual because it encompasses a small city whose claim to fame for many years has been, well, hot springs. The geothermal springs not only are hot, but also contain minerals which were promoted for their healthful effects on the body. A row of bath houses stand today on Central Avenue downtown, a reminder of the days when people flocked from all over the country to bathe in the so-called therapeutic waters. The water, which comes from natural hot springs in the surrounding hills, is still pumped to bath houses on the avenue. Patti and I couldn’t resist taking a hot spring mineral bath. After a long drive that day, I can say with authority that it was a pleasant experience for the body and the spirit.

  Congaree National Park Notes Old-growth, bottomland hardwood and pine. A floodplain forest. Bald cypress with its buttressed base and knees sticking up above the water. Loblolly pines soaring high above the flood. In the canopy, sweetgum, water tupelo, and ash.   Took the boardwalk for a quick but lasting impression of this special place. A surprise: we saw no alligators, something we always seem to run into when we’re in South Carolina.  

  Wupatki and Sunset Crater A side trip from our Grand Canyon campsite brought us to these two Arizona national monuments within a few miles of each other. Wupatki Pueblo, built c. 1100, is a masonry structure of close to 100 rooms and several stories. Their surviva attests to the considerable skills of the builders. Archaeologists tell us that Wupatki was an agrarian society that came together some time after the nearby volcanic eruption of what is known today as Sunset Crater. The people of Wupatki were able to develop a culture that thrived in a land of scant water and resources. We modern-day people have something to learn from them. We walked the grounds of Wupatki, and then headed down the road to Sunset Crater. The volcano is the type known as a cinder cone, formed by the rise of magma in a central vent. Magma is a mix of molten rock and gases. As the magma rises, pressure drops and the gases are released causing an explosion from the central vent. Small rocks, “cinders,” fa...

  Mammoth A large primordial beast gave its name to this vast underground cave, the longest in the world. It has over 350 miles of once-hidden passageways, and many more miles still to be discovered, perhaps as many as 600. That was the information the ranger gave us when we visited this underground national park years ago. Perhaps they’ve uncovered more tunnels since.  Mammoth Cave is also the most ecologically diverse. Some 130 species of life are found there. Many are eyeless and unpigmented in the dark recesses of the cave. Though we didn’t see any of those when we toured, we did experience huge rooms, narrow spots that you had to squeeze through, and the flowstone that demonstrates the power of water to “melt” solid rock over eons of time. It was definitely a deep experience.

  Makers The mountains make the snowfields. The snowfields make the river, The source of water for an arid land,  The maker of the Grand Canyon. The mountains are the Rockies, The birthplace of the river. The River Colorado. Rock and River makers.

  George Speaks Old George, only age 4, says memorable things. Recently, his Mom was driving him to school, when she spotted a man with a huge beard. She asked George, “When you’re old, are you going to grow a big beard like that?” George told her, “You’ll have to wait and see.”

  High IQ Haiku What are they known as? Verse by Japanese masters High IQ haiku Sun rise creeps northward Promises a bright, blue day Snow’s days are numbered One at the feeder “Big bird” with hooves and antlers Deer, save some for birds! Sun’s arc gets higher Blanket of snow gets tattered Spring coming, can’t wait! Hoof tracks in the snow Trail heads right to the feeder Caught you in your tracks! Squirrels acting up It is not even March yet Why so squirrely? Deer eat the acorns Birds fluttering at the feeder Life as it should be

  Voyageurs National Park As one historian described the late 18th and early 19th century fur trade, it was “a vast empire held together by nothing stronger than birchbark.” Canoe, that is. The birchbark canoe was used extensively by the voyageurs in their fur trade empire. The voyageurs route - between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods - was so established by those hardy men that it became, in the 1783 treaty ending the Revolutionary War, the international boundary.   Voyageurs National Park lies along fifty-six miles of their canoe route to Canada’s Northwest. A boat - for Patti and I, a canoe - is still the only way to see this National Park. And we did it up close and personal, paddling the vast lakes, Kabetogama, Namakan, and Rainy, doing overland portages, and camping in remote campsites. It was not, shall I say, a walk in the park, but a true adventure. We mapped out a route from the east end of Kabetogama, to the west end of Namakan, to a portage to Beast Lake, ...

  The Yellowstone Trip Back in August of 2010, Patti and I took a trip with Amy and Aaron to a number of national parks and other memorable places on the way to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. These included the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Black Hills, Wind Cave, and Medicine Wheel National Historic Site.  The Badlands are well-named. They are other-worldly bad. Over-the-top bad. But beautiful as well in their own stark and sere way. We took them in, and drove on down the road.  Next stop, Mount Rushmore, the iconic faces of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln peering down from their mountain home. Per the brochure, it took six years to carve the faces in the cliff, six years spread over the fourteen years it took to raise the million dollars for the project. The faces are up to six stories high from chin to crown. Taking a road off to the side of the mountain, we caught a different camera angle, the side of Washington’s face. We had a bri...

  Capitol Reef and Arches National Parks Capitol Reef was a hiking stop along the way from Zion to our next campsite at Arches National Park. We drove the road that transects the park from west to east, and took in petroglyphs, and the Fruita historic district (a Mormon settlement). We took one long hike into the interior, but as it was getting hot we decided to return to our car and head up to Arches.  There we set up camp at a ridge-top site from which you could see for miles across the high desert. Hiking trails in this park took us to many of the huge sandstone arches for which it is named, but nowhere near the over 2000 of them here. Some highlights were the 306-feet long Landscape Arch, Delicate Arch on the rim of a canyon with snow-capped mountains in the distance, and Balanced Rock, a hoodoo-like tower capped by a huge boulder. Arches National Park is one of our favorites. It rocks!  

  Hoodoos Bryce Canyon has them, hundreds of rock pinnacles that glow like licks of fire in the sunshine. Paiutes thought of the hoodoos as the Legend People whom Coyote had turned to stone. Coyote didn’t need to cast a spell on us. The hoodoos did that as we beheld their other-worldly stone presence. We took two hikes in the park: on the rim and down into the canyon. The eye-popping rim hike spread before us hundreds of the orange-glowing spires. The loop hike down into the canyon put us right there with them. There was even a rock formation, not a hoodoo, that looked like a queen on a throne surveying her hoodoo subjects. The stone formations of Bryce are some of the most memorable geologic features that we’ve encountered in our national parks.

  Zion Zion was the Promised Land to Mormon settlers. The Virgin River supplied the most crucial element in a dry climate, a reliable source of water. The sanctuary that the Mormons found in this river-irrigated canyon had been such for thousands of years for the Ancestral Puebloans, and others before them. It is a beautiful canyon with golden cliffs rising high over our campsite. Nearby were irrigation ditches still flowing from the time they were dug by the Mormons to water their crops. With cars not allowed on the scenic drive, we took the shuttle bus up the canyon, and took a high-rising stone trail up the canyon wall. Simply beautiful canyon vistas. We descended again to the canyon floor and took the iconic walk in the river itself into The Narrows. There the Virgin River squeezes through a steep-walled slot it had created over millennia. It is easy to imagine how the grand and arable  Zion Canyon was considered a land of promise for thousands of years.

  Pictured Rocks and Grand Island Water loves sandstone. Lake Superior sculpts sandstone cliffs into fantastic shapes in the Pictured Rocks and neighboring Grand Island. We kayaked to Grand, hiked its length, and kayak-camped in secluded Trout Bay. On the mainland, we hiked along the top of Grand Sable Dunes, and on trails to Chapel Falls, Mosquito Falls, Munising Falls, and Miners Castle.  Everywhere we went, we saw the effect of relentless water on solid rock, and its decorative value as well. The rock cliffs are pictured in tones of tan, brown, green, and white due to seepage containing minerals of different hues. It is natural artistry at work, always with the abiding presence and potential power of the greatest of lakes, Superior.    

  Sleeping Bear Dunes Took the Badger ferry across Lake Michigan to explore this national lakeshore. According to Ojibwa legend, two bears didn’t fare so well. A mother and two cubs swam across the lake to escape a forest fire. The mother waited at what came to be called Sleeping Bear Point, but the cubs didn’t make it. She became the largest dune, and the cubs became the Manitou Islands. Hiked the beach at her sandy paws. Took a boat to South Manitou, and hiked among giant cedars. Saw the shipwreck off the island’s coast, now carrying only a cargo of cormorants.  

  Redwood Sequoia sempervirens (ever living). Lives only on the northern California coast. Lives long there: some 2,000 years old and still growing. Lofty forests kept moist by ocean mists. Uplifting to the spirits, and humbling to one’s fragile frame, Compared to the world’s tallest trees. A privilege to be among them for a day and a night, Camped on the Smith River under their soaring limbs.

  Sequoia Some grow taller, Like the redwoods West of here, on the coast. Some are older, Like the bristlecone pines East of here, in the rain shadow of the Sierras. None more massive, groves of them, West of the mountains, mid-elevation. Thousands of years old. An early spring walk in a soaring cathedral.

  Great Sand Dunes National Park Snow-capped peaks Foothills of sand  Sand washed down from the mountains for millennia Piled up many stories high The tallest dunes on the continent And over thirty square miles  An undulating, ever-changing land form Sculpted by the wind 

  Hovenweep National Monument Paiute for "desert valley" Stone towers Finely hewn buildings Like fortresses  On the edge of a canyon Near springs and seeps In an otherwise dry landscape An agrarian society Protects its water A culture of craftsmen and farmers Speaks to us   From 800 years ago

  Natural Bridges National Monument Think of bridges Built by man Over water Here water built the bridges Through solid rock Water relentless Over millennia Cut through river meanders Bridges for the ages

  Navajo National Monument Deep canyon hike. Sheer rock walls. Juniper and pinyon, Aspen and douglas fir. Recessed in the far wall,  A huge rounded alcove, Like a bandshell in solid rock. A little village inside, Of sandstone brick. “900 years old,” said the Navajo guide, “Our ancestors.”

  Muir Woods Ancient giants 600 and more years old Humbles our brief human life Coast redwoods The tallest living things Walk among them Your spirits soar

  Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Lake Itasca Notes  Left Glacier National Park behind. As vertical as was Glacier, northern Montana was horizontal. Flat land. Range land. Gain in elevation, or was it a loss, west to east maybe six inches. Could see the mountains of Glacier in the rear view mirror maybe 50 miles. The land, though, has its own, simply empty aesthetic. We saw pronghorns and longhorns. What’s left is bighorns. We hope to add them to our “large animal bucket list” at Teddy Roosevelt National Park. We hear that they haunt the badlands there. But first we have to travel through these Montana plains, and the busy oil fields of northwest North Dakota.  After all that driving, the park was an oasis of peace and rugged beauty. Dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt who had a ranch in these parts, the Park is a tribute to the man who preserved many naturally beautiful places as national parks and monuments. We set up camp, hearing from folks that bison had been our camps...

  Notes from Glacier National Park Camped at Fish Creek campground at the western end of Going-to-the-Sun Road. The road is the only one that transects the park from its western to eastern boundaries. We took the shuttle bus along the road to Avalanche Creek trail. Hiked it to Avalanche Lake, an emerald-green beauty with a mountain cirque towering over it. Five waterfalls plummeted down the cirque walls to the lake. Returned via Trail of the Cedars, following a gorge carved out by the swift-flowing creek. Jumped on the next bus up the narrow, twisting road to Logan Pass, elevation 6646 feet. Here we hiked up the trail for great mountain views above the treeline.  Since our vehicle length exceeded the limit on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we took the hundred mile route around the southern border of the park. We cruised the beautiful Flathead River valley to the St. Mary campground and set up camp in an aspen thicket. We again took the shuttle to see the eastern end of the park. W...