Tundra Swans at Great Salt Lake by G. Crandall, 2009

Skybusting Tundra swans pedal
so furiously on take-off, water forgets
itself, follows them skyward. Seven-foot
wings bat air, coax birds up. White feathers
whistle with each stroke. That's what The Sibley
Guide says, what I believe for now. I need help
getting my swans airborne. From there,
I know the way. A November afternoon

at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Cirrus clouds forgive strokes of blue, slashes
of sunshine. Nothing else calls attention
to itself, until I hear a jumble of sound
in the distance. A string stretches south to north
near lakeside mountains. Binoculars pinpoint
flocks of Tundra swans, hundreds at once, heads
and bodies arrowed north, hoots high, resonant,
klooo kwooo, klooo kwooo- flung ahead as sound
must be. Sibley hears hounds in those cries.
If so, swans are the hunted, baying dogs
far afield, mythically powerless
to end the pursuit.  Sibley's swans nest

silently on the page, yellow teardrop stamped above
black bill. Land-shy unless breeding, they mate
for life. Miniature range maps substitute
pastel patches for marsh ponds flooded
with grass and roots. In this sterile setting
no chicks hatch, fly off the page
with parents. No Arctic storms. No seasonal
migrants. No Mecca of salt and water. While
my real swans wheel and explode

with energy. A biblical abundance, feathers brilliant
as salt sheen, thousands upon thousands water down
in a clamor sufficient to raise the dead. They sanctify
the horizon with a ribbon of white. After a twilight
ruffle, pairs float gently together, bobbing with the moon.

    Maurine Haltiner  

About the author: Maurine has lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, all of her life. A graduate of the University of Utah, Maurine taught English in the Salt Lake City School District for 33 years. While participating in the Utah Arts Council Artists in the Schools Program, her West High students wrote and published a young adult novel, The Torrents of Spring. Maurine's poems have been published in Byline, Panorama, Grandmother Earth, Encore, Passager, Friends of the Great Salt Lake, UCTE Journal, and Nine One One: Poems for September 11. Her manuscript A Season and a Time was the 2004 winner of the Utah State Poetry Society Pearle M. Olsen publication award. She has also written a young adult novel, Truth Windows, which includes a description of the Great Salt Lake and a scene set on Antelope Island. Maurine has also created award-winning photography and artwork.