April is National Poetry Month, and when we saw this poem in a recent Indiana Parks Alliance e-newsletter, we knew we had to share it. No one has protected more natural areas in Indiana than John Bacone, director of the DNR Division of Nature Preserves for 40 years. A winter visit to Turkey Run, one of Indiana’s most iconic state parks, brought out his inner poet.
Rocky Hollow Canyon in Winter
By John Bacone
The narrow canyon is dark like a cave.
Frozen icicles cling to the walls
seeping between layers of sandstone.
The afternoon sunlight glistens and spotlights
the icy stalactites and stalagmites,
the flowstones and curtains.
Colors of pyrite, glacial blue, snow white
and clear glass are highlighted.
The frozen creek lightly cracks.
The sound of silent…
only a murmuring rock dove,
and the dripping from an icicle,
and the rivulet running under the ice.
Our breath hangs in the air,
as we watch in awe.
John Bacone
Secretary