By Nancy Schmalz
Far below the turbulent eddies
of ordinary air and light, in the haven
where the spruce’s great limbs,
heavy with snow, admit no wind,
no sound, no sweeping flake,
the faint sun is filtered to stillness.
Sieved through tiers of needles,
the few beams which find the ground
stay there, warming the earth
until spring, when they become crocuses.
Nancy Schmalz is a musician, gardener, teacher and knitter living in a historic home in Mineral Point with her husband, Peter. Her collection of poetry, “Breath to Music, Air to Sound,” was published in 2017 by Mineral Point’s Little Creek Press.
The photograph of Black Earth Creek was taken by 18-year-old freelance photographer Mitchell Travis of Mazomanie. Mitchell says he found his passion for photography in elementary school when he started taking photos with his mom’s phone of the sunsets around Mazo. After documenting the Mazomanie flood of August 2018, he found his passion for photojournalism and telling people’s stories through photographs. Outside of photography you can find him working as a newspaper pressman printing small newspapers based in Wisconsin. For more of Mitchell’s work, see www.mitchelltravis.com and find him on Instagram @mtravis15 or on Facebook @Mitchell Travis.