Friends of Crex Literary Corner

This page will be updated occasionally with excerpts from and reviews of books available at the Bog Shoe gift shop at the Crex Meadows Wildlife Education and Visitor Center.

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Worth A Thousand Words

There is a place special to us, treasured

Each time we go there, and this is measured,

This specialness, in a unique beauty

Near-inexpressible—shared as duty

Here, out of thanks, for “space” when we’re pressured

Always safe, quieting, restorative….

I paint a fall day, of explorative

Quest unusual—not of early spring

Or green summer high, when birds are a-wing

in tasks parental—nay, implorative

Rather:  “Come,” this bejeweled day did say,

“Come afield and bask in golden sun’s ray,

Far from home, in soul’s refuge set apart

For you, where God tends to and mends your heart,

Where light, wind, and spirit tumble and play.”

The brightest of October days it was,

Sun ablaze in final show as it does

In fall, not with rays perpendicular

But beams in angles acute.  This ruler

Of light, though, was now fast at war, because

Dark clouds, pregnant with rain, were all around.

Vast, billowing thunderheads besieged ground

And sky in sudden sortie.  Lightning high

O’erhead did flash, and sullen thunder nigh

At hand did roll, rumblingly, voice now found.

Fast o’ershadowed and outflanked, sun did find

Chink in storm’s armor, a tear in its rind

At westernmost edge:  through thin slit bright shaft

Of light did break, intense beyond one’s craft

To tell.  Unstoppable, not of a mind

To be engulfed, straight east flew its great beam,

Infinitely expanding, one great stream

Of immense light, now alive as to etch

All it struck, burning indelible sketch

To mem’ry, stored fast for tomorrow’s dream.

Now in the east black towers of storm’s roar

Rose, rank on rank; from them did great rain pour,

In silv’ry curtains, backlit by strong flash

Of lightning, and now billowed-out to lash

Spent earth with wind-whipped rain ‘fore winter’s door.

Into black, storm-tossed sky, o’er russet earth

There now did sound a wild bugling—of mirth,

Almost—that defied storm and spoke of joy

Of living in the moment, voice not coy

But brazen, full of life, like babe at birth.

Legion upon legion of sandhill cranes,

Skein after skein, flying straight into rain’s

Fury, undaunted, alive with life, untamed,

Wild and free, of one mind, in ranks unnamed,

Banking into gale brisk to feasts of grains--

All caught as in amber, by beacon strong:

Silv’ry curtains of falling rain, along

Lines billowing , blust’ry, wind-driven;

Dark tow’rs of thund’ring cloud, lightning-riven;

Grain fields of autumn gold aground, not wrong,

Out of place, but contrasting frame of light

To dark fury above:  and, between, flight

Upon flight of cranes, frozen forever

In mind’s eye, stored in the heart as lever

To joy in times dark with long winter’s night,

When earth here seems bereft of life.  Now etched

In fire-y gold, cranes’ plumage becomes sketched

In gray tinted rose with life of its own.

Dancing, shifting rain and cloud both now shown

To be choreographed by God, here fetched

From realms diverse, as gift divine.  In a flash

The tableau dissolves:  sun ‘neath rim does dash,

Light goes out, and darkness rules.  On comes night

In rush autumnal, muting gifts of sight,

Place, and sound, bugling now forsook for rash

Of frenzied feeding on fall’s pregnant grains,

As fuel for long migration.  Light now drains

From earth and sky:  russet golds become gray,

Rose-edged storm clouds turn purple, bleed away

To vague black, now pouring down shapeless rains.

Coincidence?  Chance?  Serendipity?

Being in right place at right time can be

Benediction and blessing, sign of grace

And love from Creator God, sensed in trace

Divine, in beauty gentle, ours to see.

This much I know, of this truth I am sure:

Tableau was set, vignette took form, so pure

And rare a sight to us but sublimely

Happ’ning daily since birth of time, kindly

Orchestrated by God, Who can’t endure

To enjoy creation’s beauty alone

But makes us co-sharers in love unknown

If not from Him.  For us this day was meant,

For us this scene, these elements were sent:

Grace ask’d but thanks, such love in nature shown.

Gordy Palzer

June 1999

There is a book available by one of our active volunteers and Friends of Crex member, Max Malmquist, about the history of the North Branch area.  It is HUGE!  4 volumes and extremely in depth, including information about how Crex Meadows influenced that area. 

Volume 1 is $27 and the other three volumes are $25 each.  More information about the books can be found at www.northbranchhistory.com.

The book series is currently available in a few locations in and around North Branch as well.

We are Guests

Reflections from

Crex Meadows

by  Ted Berkland  

From the foreward of We Are Guests:

"In verse and rhyme, Ted Berkland writes with a deep spiritual sense and perception.  His poems trace the dramatic changes humans have wrought on the vast glacial marshes named Crex Meadows.    Berkland’s poems sketch that poignant history and points out that man’s way may not be nature’s way. Sharp powers of observation an inquiring mind are compressed in the books short verses." 

-Harold  C. Jordahl, Jr.

Emeritus Professor, former chair,  

Wisconsin Natural Resources Board

Ted’s books are available at the Crex Meadows Visitor Center.  If interested, you may contact Crex at information@crexmeadows.org  The books are $10.00 plus $2.00 postage and handling.  Or stop in to the gift shop on your next visit to Crex Meadows.  All proceeds go towards the Friends of Crex.

A Sand County Almanac

by Aldo Leopold

"First published in 1949, Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac is now an established environmental classic.  Beginning with a beautifully written description of the seasonal changes in nature and their effect on the delicate ecological balance, the book proceeds to examples of man's destructive interference and concludes with a plea for a Wilderness esthetic that is even more urgent and timely today than ever before." - from the inside cover of A Sand County Almanac

Excerpts from A Sand County Almanac

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.  These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot. 

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher standard of living is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.  For us in the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech." - from the Foreword to Sand County Almanac

"The indigo bunting on the hill asserts title to the dead oak limb left by the 1936 drouth, and to divers near-by bugs and bushes.  He does not claim, but I think implies, to the right to out-blue all bluebirds, and all spiderworts that has turned their faces to the dawn." - from the chapter entitled "July"

This book is available at the Crex Meadows Visitor Center.  If interested you may contact Crex at information@crexmeadows.org

 or stop in to the gift shop.

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FRIENDS OF CREX, INC.   102 EAST CREX AVENUE, GRANTSBURG WISCONSIN 54840   (715) 463-2739         www.crexmeadows.org