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Reflections Upon Our Galilee About this Poem: This poem virtually wrote itself. As developers and the Utah Legislature look for reasons to develop Utah Lake into many islands of housing and other eagerly hand-crafted sprawl, I felt the need to opine. This greedy idea only bestows an insufferable means to facilitate some imaginary quest to “improve water quality.” The irony seems to be the only stable landform that rises from these vast waters. Using money to develop a public treasure artificially will never offer real, lasting, and sustainable solutions. Instead, as is often true in similar cases (the Great Salt Lake pumping project comes to mind), we need to simply learn from our pasts and leave nature alone. Then, we can focus our effort to relieve the pressures constricting its long, beautiful shores of peace and tranquility. Nature looks far beyond our short-term objectives. A bit of geography is valuable as a preface to those who may not know about this watery paradise. Utah Lake is connected to the Great Salt Lake by the Jordan River. And there is a reason for this river’s name. It is a hallowed topographical feature that mirrors the hydrogeography of the Holy Land, but the waters flow north. Hence my unique and devout take on this priceless resource. As is apparent—I am trying to appeal to a particular audience. Utah Lake has been used and abused far too much. At this stage of her life—she deserves sacred space within a protected sanctuary of healing and rest. Only such a remedy can offer us similar and lasting peace. In a broad Utah valley of high pressure
life still flows into a reflecting heart
that bears its own picturesque lake
a modest but drifting sea of miracles
still dampened in soft grey shadows
of a verdant mountain’s ancestral vitality pulsing a course into the Jordan River
she carries watery nurseries of life north
into timeless mirrors of a salty dying sea
held captive beneath the fiery edges
of its own peculiar and endless horizon
where vaporous spirits wait to return to her— yet while Utah Lake’s oft-troubled waters
pray for untainted tributaries of healing
we should reflect upon another Master—
the rock of our ages—God’s beloved Son
who could restore living waters to
our pasts that churn in turbid ignorance He was born with passion and matured
as watered by His tender loving parents
in Nazareth—west of the coasts of Galilee
He was baptized in its River Jordan
and transformed its deep waters into wine
He walked on Galilee’s troubled waters upon her shores of fear and self-doubt
He recruited his first—eager disciples
Peter, Andrew, James, and John
He taught a sermon upon a soft mount
overlooking her vast azure reflections
of a heaven—few could comprehend He calmed her dark ferocious storms
and fed five thousand faithful in her vale
with water’s growth and forgiving words
He filled empty nets and empty hearts
of every lonely, dispirited disciple with
overflowing catches of enduring hope but on her seaboards of ever-patient waters
after an agonizing death and resurrection
His appearance before the distressed
cleansed our sufferings and drought
by shepherding in future rolling waves
shaped of hope and faith and love these consecrated patterns of Galilee
still reflect our responsibilities—
our sacred stewardship today while desert’s mirror over calm waters
can still reflect all the shapes of us
and upon our ancestral heritage
to shine as thriving signs of a life
as natural redemptions in a glass
we must never tarnish nor desecrate Mother Nature still labors where possible
to fix our troubled or industrious pasts
she mends our misdeeds of growth
with the slower passions of fresh life
lights—we flow as countless fish that swim free
and spawn in the rivers of our posterity this divine plan of care for the water
and for every promised land it serves
requires respect for her freedom
not using our freedom to incarcerate
her gradual but deliberate natural solutions
tampering is tantamount to desecration if we fill her nets of redemption
with our faux manmade islands—
bagged in filthy speculation and pride
causing us to lose our integrations
with her spirit of His divine creation
we will dwell in a desert of apathy an abomination of desolation
that will disturb all the lives we cannot see
and all the lives that we can
our harsh accounting will be recorded
upon nature’s ledger of lost habitats
salty tears in dust will poison our futures we are blessed to live within her arms
of such an obscure but emerald calm
that washes us on shores of forgiveness
where our posterity can live and thrive
by a strong, resilient, and beautiful lake
resurrected through her Maker and us who know and honor the ancestors
who lie buried beside the waters of her life
who can learn to keep undisturbed
any sediments born in our ignorance—
who will never desecrate our children’s vision
with past sins or a wealth-driven future for when hasty politics transect nature
and her cherished chronicles of science
we will discover time and time again—
that society wastes its clearest defender
the peaceful waters that provide us life
on those who exact only a short reward we must all look upon waters of the earth
and the healing waters of our heavens
to fully comprehend our own reflections
and how we choose to envision our days
we are echoes of this gift of Utah Lake
a priceless temple and irreplaceable sea—
known distinctively—as our own Galilee
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