Twenty Years At Sage Creek
It’s a good time to revisit my poem “Sage Creek,” which I wrote a decade ago about an annual trip I make with my students to camp in the Badlands National Park here in South Dakota.
It’s partly an Environmental Studies excursion, but it began as (and remains) an exercise for my ancient philosophy class, in which the students and I slow down and lie on the dry grass and watch the stars.
I’ve been doing it for twenty years now. It’s always tiring, and always refreshing. For my students who join me, I think it is always memorable and often life-changing.
Here’s a sketch I made this morning after the sun rose over our campground.
