lakes

Stormwater

Stormwater makes gutters exciting

clear and fast and rush, rush, rushing

sticks and leaves and grass and concrete

fresh puddles are new lakes

around a drowned playground

the waves offshore huge and brown

with denuded earth from headlands

floating and crashing

flying to shore

soft and high like Tara Brach’s hair

rain, rain, rain for days makes mirrors

everywhere

then it drains like snow disappears

and you wonder

what happened to all that extra stuff

the world absorbs

enfolding elements, renewed

and we observe only

an iceberg-tip of all

Photo: flooded forest by Claire Doble

Wow, it has been more than a month since I last posted, that is a long time for me. I have felt a bit flat and non-poetic lately I guess. I hope this changes!

The Caged Lake

trapped behind bars

and rooms with candelabras

watched over by stone lions

hemmed by iron pylons

you laugh a liquid chuckle

claim your sovereignty

in droplets

human greed encroaches

puts you in a bottle

still you slide away

you are me, you say

I’ll destroy your structures

by the molecule

as you build them

I erode

froth, ozone, fog and puddle

cage me if you wish

I’m the undertow

the overthrow

and more

in every pore

you know

the score

I wanted to use this line ‘the undertow and the overthrow’ since reading it in a poem by Aurora Phoenix, it seemed to fit here on a poem musing about Lake Geneva, how it’s so big and yet people seek to own it and/or make private property of it. How can we own nature? Water is part of us. And yet clean water is a privilege and a commodity. Not sure I entirely captured it (!) but need a few poems to break up the ‘cantons’ …

Photo: the fence of a chateau on Lake Geneva (snapped by me!)

#26CANTONS52WEEKS: Graubünden

Caumasee, Graubunden

Canton: Graubünden / Grisons (German/French)

Destination: Caumasee / Lag la Cauma (German/Romansh)

Interesting thing: There’s many interesting things about Graubünden! It’s the biggest canton, area-wise and is where you’ll find almost all the Romansh speakers (Switzerland’s fourth official language).

Special guests: just the family this time

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was a hot and sunny Sunday when we decided to head to the Caumasee. Unfortunately this was not one of our better-planned outings and was all a bit last minute. It was also about a two-hour drive, so we didn’t get there until after noon and all the parking spots were taken! Luckily Himself had a brainwave and remembered that he’d once hiked to the lake from nearby Laax, where we found a half-empty car park, phew.

After a quick lunch of alpine fries in the café of Prau la Selva sport centre, we walked 20 minutes to the Caumasee. It was worth the extra journey, too, because we got to pass through some lovely forest and past the beautiful Lag Tuleritg lake on the way. (FYI – the area around here is called Flims, not to be confused with Flums, which we visited the following week!)

The Caumasee itself was just like the pictures. I didn’t take too many but you can see more on the Caumasee webpage. The water was really deep blue-green like you see, even close up – almost viscous: like blue paint-water. I swam out to the island in the centre, then halfway back to jump off the diving board. Just as I was heading into shore, I realised it had clouded over, the first few raindrops fell and the mass exodus had begun before I even got back to our stuff.

We had a rather wet and wild walk back up to the Laax carpark, but luckily the forest canopy protected us somewhat. We passed by the cool-looking Hochseilpark (high rope course), which seems like a fun activity to explore once the kids are a bit older.

There’s plenty more in Graubünden beyond the Caumasee (although Cauma is surely one of the most gorgeous lakes in a country of stunning lakes!) We had a trip to Davos last year and the capital city of Chur is also nice, not to mention the famous glitz of St Moritz!

Cantons visited / to go so far.

~~Aargau~~

~~Appenzell Ausserrhoden~~

~~Appenzell Innerrhoden~~

Basel-Landschaft

Basel-Stadt

Bern *

Fribourg

Geneva

~~Glarus~~

~~Graubünden~~

~~Jura~~