for Denise Cartwright & Chandler Rosenberg

Part 1

praise the stillness, praise the stank
praise specular reflection
praise salty slope and lake foam

praise brine fly murmuration
praise each muted desert tone
the briny glisten hidden in the marsh

praise twilight and birdsong
praise microbialites, ancient mothers
beckoning wings from distant lands:

breeding pelicans
swooping avocets
phalarope glitter

praise the mist of early morning
praise her smell on summer evening
praise pastel light

praise spinning, spinning, spinning
praise the courtship dance of grebes
praise the salt-crusted gull on the lakebed

for the-way-you-can-see-her-on-the-globe-praise
for the-complication-of-scale-praise
for oolitic shimmer, for ooids between toes

for island ships on the inland sea
for the-north-south-flyway-praise
for slinking mammals on the periphery

for the-back-and-forth-of-blue-green-praise!
praise the horizon, praise our namesake
praise the first place we saw a blue grosbeak

Part 2

birds, birds, birds, light, light,
coyotes, stinging skin, dancing flies
saline symbol, oasis from busy city—

what is this whiff of ocean on wind?
praise this mirror of mountains
praise sitting on rocks, praise silence

praise waders in the mist
praise being buoyant in heaviness
praise sunset from buffalo point
for the marble swirl of brine shrimp
my feet painting through mud
for clouds on water, praise!

for pickle weed and tremendous storms
for the grounding salty air
for perfectly round grains of sand

for the lore of lake whales, praise!
for this source of artist’s inspiration, praise!
for a child’s wonder, praise!

praise the lake for giving us snow
for providing all with water and life
praise water for bringing more water

praise brine shrimp dangling from a beard
praise the bumpy, spiral jetty road
praise meditating with bison

for floating together off stansbury island
for taking refugee students to see antelope island
for a father with his nikon, awaiting the moment, praise!

praise being here with fourth graders
how we drew her and sat with her
praise our stories and memories

praise pink floyd the flamingo
praise the awe I felt on my first sighting of the lake
is that salt encrustation or snow?

for the salt in our blood, in our sweat
and yes, for salt in our tears of joy and sorrow
for the salt in our fierce resolve, praise!

Part 3

praise the salt she shares
praise her slopes eroding with time
moody sky and distant mountains

praise ripples
praise crisp reflections
praise the forecast

salt-scented wind bringing snow
praise the indistinct meeting
between sky and water for a sunrise row

praise the texture of salt hummocks
this ecosystem of pronghorn, chukar, and hare
praise dragonflies whizzing through willow tufts

for mosquito-birthdays-with-smoke-red-sunsets-praise!
the most sublimely bloody thing I’ve seen,
so pink and red and bruised, endearingly grotesque

for the-catalina-sailing-the-wide-open-praise
for the-leg-sucking-mud-praise
praise birbs and borbs, for her lucky charm, praise!

praise floating without needing to try
praise swimming with phalaropes
praise beach-running gulls gobbling flies

praise brine fly and great blue heron,
plentiful sea monkeys, rare
mirabilites, indigo to gold wetlands

praise clean water reclaimed from sewage
praise her colors and shapes from the air
praise magenta reflection

i see her out the window, miles away
thank you for telling us that hope is not enough
now we communicate directly

stand at her shore and praise
the bone deep feeling of home
praise her history and future

behold her diaphanous blush
behold rain bursts traversing her surface
listen, she is listening to us

praise the praise which has begun to flow
praise porcupines in trees
coyotes hunting in snow

it’s hard work
to save a life
praise persisting

now we are lake-facing people
praise coming home
praise listening.

Lines gathered from over 150 of the attendees from the first Save Our Great Salt Lake rally held online January 15th, 2022.