Place.

It is important to think of where we have come from. It is as much a part of us as anything can be. It shapes us. It influences what we think of new places. The Great Lakes, to me, are the best waters in the world. I have been swimming in Lake Superior in the summer and winter. That water does not change much or feel very different from one season to the next. My most lovely friend calls the big lake Mother Superior. I can very much understand that feeling.

I have swam in Lake Huron when the water felt like a warm bath and the sun burned my skin. The Great Lakes are not all the same even if they run into and through one another. They each have a personality. They each have a poetry that is specific to them. Lake Erie is the tough one, Superior is the powerful one, Huron is the gentle one, Michigan is the mixed-up one, and Ontario is the other one.

Wherever I have been I have thought back on these waters. I have come home and walked the pebbles and rocks of the Superior shore until I have found the place where I knew I would feel better. I have felt that lake change me. It is poetry to think about the place we come from.