Shrouded Shore: The Many Musings of Thom Singleton

  Feelings Are you in-the-moment right now? What’s the feeling inside? Are you blah or rah? Eek or ache? Or just plain irate? Bored or glad? Scared or sad? Or just plain mad? Express them safely Let them go When you do You’ll feel glad!

  The Artist in the Sky The distant Sun, artist of our own corner of the cosmos, paints Earth’s clouds red and yellow. Then, somehow, a bolt of not lightning but light pierces through the tangle of trees behind our house, and falls on the dew-jeweled meadow. The Sun, an artist beyond compare.

  Ice Cream, Home-made A pail, a canister. a mixing motor A few ingredients And ice and salt to freeze them In half an hour, ice cream! Delicious, no additives Just smooth, frozen delight Fun to make and, especially, to eat

  Ish Added to a word, ish turns it to “almost,” as in summerish, or warmish. Or “around,” as in 70ish. Or “near,” as in greenish, yellowish. Or “close to,” as in 9ish, 10ish, noonish. As in “I’ll meet you at 6ish for a walk. It will be warmish. We’ll see early autumn colors, redish, yellowish. Good thing we’re youngish for it’s a longish walk.” We got home at 8ish, had a drink, and said, “Ish wash good, washn’t ish?”

  A Weathered Old Gate A weathered old gate, nearly unhinged, creaks and cries as it swings in the wind. A portal like this, if it could talk, would have stories to tell of who came down the walk. These old stories are to me legendary,  I will search my memory to see who made this journey. While bouncing a ball on the fence down the walk, I found then that the gate started to talk. Talk? More like creak, as the rusty old hinges started to squeak. You always knew without looking outside When the wind was up, making the swinging gate shriek. I and my siblings passed through it to school, and sometimes would forget to latch it, as was the rule. Sure enough, our dog Rover would follow us to school, and often would end up in the office, under the principal’s rule. So many times did this occur, that the dog was named school mascot, the principal’s Rover. Door-to-door salesmen entered back in the day, swinging open the gate to make their play. But as convincing as their sales pitch m...

  Everything So Green, For Now A carpet of green in the meadow, a ceiling of green in the woods. So green is the world, one can almost conjure a taste of mint, Or little green men of Mars painting our planet in their likeness. But wait! There’s hints of other colors in the verdant trees, reds and yellows. After all, it is September.  The Sun’s arc is headed south, and leaves behind its brilliance in the greenery, A radiance that soon will prevail in a fiery Fall climax. But the grasses and trees remember, and will welcome the Sun back again. Back again in Spring.

  Upper Dells This is a boat trip on the Wisconsin River, the highlights of which are walks, walks into Witch’s Gulch and Stand Rock. Witch’s is a very narrow, deep, dark rend in the rock, a canyon almost cave-like in places, where you had to be careful or you’d run into enclosing walls. A witch would have to take off her tall hat to make it through. A stream courses through it bridged by a boardwalk. The boat landed there as well as at Stand Rock. There a short walk inland brings you to a tall, stories-high column of rock with a flat crown way larger in circumference than its supporting column. For the amazement of us spectators, a dog, trained to do so, jumped from a nearby cliff top to the top of Stand Rock and back. Witch’s Gulch and Stand Rock, icons of  Wisconsin Dells. 

  Copper Falls  A series of waterfalls in a rugged rock canyon  at the confluence of the Tyler Forks and Bad Rivers Watery cascades thunder as they have for centuries through ancient lava rock, echoes of its volcanic origin A sight and sound not to be missed The rivers not navigable but spectacular to experience from the canyon-top hike Copper Falls State Park, a northern Wisconsin gem

  The Apostles Not 12, 21 Not the biblical ones, islands Forested islands, some with sea caves Sea caves cut from rock by relentless waves Waves of Lake Superior, largest lake in the world Reminisced on a boat tour A boat that would dwarf our sea kayak Our kayak that we paddled in the islands years ago And camped on two, Oak and Otter This year, the grand tour took us all the way to Devils Island An odd name for an Apostle, but also the northernmost land in Wisconsin It’s north shore is riddled with sea caves, the evidence of Lake Superior’s power The power to erode rock The tour was filled with moments of beauty, and memories of kayak camping days Thank you, Apostles, and their Great Lake