Missing Monona’s North Shore

There is a magic in temporary places
Even when you don’t know yet
A place will soon no longer
Exist as it is, going there
Is charged with intensity.
I was drawn to that shore
Over and over to stare at a
View that people have always seen—
South-west across water,
I didn’t know something was coming
But I knew I’d better go look now.
A lot of people wound up there.
A large group of us ran there
Moon-crazed one night, and acted
Out an impromptu play on the
Rocks, touched all the trees.
We make art as a barrier
To the intangible and familiarity is
A coin we spend freely and pursue
With ferocity.

About the Author:

Nicky Sund is a Madison poet, musician and cab driver. She is a graduate of the UW-Madison Creative Writing Deparment. She has read poetry at the Room of One’s Own Valentines’s Day Love and Lust reading for many years. She plays drums with the bands Ladies Must Swing, Atimevu Drum and Dance Group, the Cheron-Heany Group, the Dalton Gang and Fermata.