 |
| “Grand Prismatic Spring” Click image to enlarge |
the Rainbows?
Photo by Craig McCollum
Text by Maik Strosahl
There is a place in Wyoming where the rainbows brew into the clouds as they cross the mountains. They call it the Grand Prismatic Spring.
In 1807-08, after the Lewis and Clark Expeditions, one of the members of the group named John Colter spent a lot of time exploring this region. When he returned to civilization, his reports of geysers, bubbling mud pots, and steaming pools of water were ridiculed, and the area was jokingly called Colter’s Hell. In 1839, fur trappers are also recorded as coming upon a “boiling lake” in this region.
Grand Prismatic is the largest spring in the US and third largest in the world. The colors in the spring mirror those of rainbows, but change with the seasons and the level of microbes that thrive in the hot waters.
It was the clouds that grabbed my attention here, backed up over the mountains. Perhaps they have problems they deal with in these Covid times?
Where Are All the Rainbows?
The Leprechauns are all waiting,
checking their Facebook statuses,
upgrade walls on Clash of Clans
while supply chain woes
back up their pots of gold
in the distant skies of China.
Do not blame the clouds
waiting in mountain harbors,
storms just waiting to burst
o’or an em’rald green,
nor the cauldron of molten prisms
boiling clear to Excelsior,
bubbling full production,
overfilling underground shelves.
| Copyright © 2022 by Craig McCollum & Maik Strosahl | |
| Originally a flat lander, Craig A. McCollum received his degree in photography and headed west. He lives in Montana with his wife and two sons, exploring the outdoors while hiking, biking, and chasing moose – the latter only with a camera, of course. |  |
| Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there. |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment