Saturday, December 24, 2016

Moaning Lake



 
  
The lake is cold, with a glass clear still surface               
It lays uncomplaining through most of the year.             
High in the Swiss mountains one finds this place            
Reflecting high peaks and dark forest on its face,            
Through blue summer, crystal transparency here           
Showing late, this year winter will finally appear.         

As night time temperature creeps to a seasons low        
What is in store now invisibly wakes from sleep.           
Underwater phantom cloak spreading slow, slow          
Like a spider spinning a meticulous silk web below,      
Cold splinters shaped like icy fingers silent creep          
Art design, stitch by icy stitch will outward sweep.


Then starts the stretching to the still waters rippling
Nightly drawn further from the edges or the shoreline;
Transformation as inch by inch the face is wrinkling
Ageless reaching side to side sets surface glistening,
   Frozen blanket spreads as lake breathes a sigh benign
                            The rigidity of rock, yet malleable as a cobweb fine                             

As if struck by a ghostly wizard’s evil freezing spell        
The daily eye witness sees every change at a glance.     
Miraculous to behold a soft surface now frozen well     
One wonders for the fish that beneath the ice do dwell. 
From liquid to iron strength in an unstoppable dance;      
Children throw rocks before a step forward to chance. 


Fresh snow soon spreads a sparkling cover side to side      
Efficiently hiding faults that are precariously under.     
Loud as a rifle shot sound each new movement wide,    
Though depth of ice deepens, sloth slow, can it glide,          
As nature’s strength fires fearful cracks to tear asunder
Power, unstoppable with the growth of such a wonder.

Then starts the low tone of alarming mystic moaning     
Like the sound as great whales make a call their mate.   
Sad ghoulish cry for mercy begging or for sin atoning  
Glacier like creeping unable to hold back the groaning; 
Frequency increases whilst chilly lake accepts her fate 
Eerie repetitive moans to surrounding mountains relate. 

Breathtaking spectacle rewarding all watchers transfixed   
Holds tourist and resident in equal wide eyed awe. 
Walkers on lakeside paths, adults and children mixed  
All stop and stare and wait, in sight and sound betwixt; 
Forgetting other mountain noises of bird tweet or caw
Miracle of winter time remembered clear for ever more.



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