Visiting Howe Caverns

Continuing on the theme of otherworldly Earth-bound location, my poem this week is Visiting Howe Caverns.

If you’ve never been in a cavern system, and there’s a show cave open to the public near you, it’s worth a visit.  Howe Caverns, near Cobleskill, New York,  is large–you even go on a boat ride to see part of the cave system. But the famous Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky, while not fully mapped, covers over 400 miles. I’ve also been to Ohio Caverns, a much smaller show cave with a couple miles of explored area.

Small, medium, or large, cave systems are amazing. Just consider:

• The length of time it takes for limestone formations to grow, when they manage at best a cubic inch a year
• The variety of colors, from bright white to cream, rust, red, gold, even blue and green, imparted by mineral content in the limestone-rich water seeping through the cave system
• The unusual species of bats, fish, newts, shrimp, insects, bacteria–which exist sometimes in only one known location in the world
• How fragile these ecosystems are, which brings into the question the balance between the value of being open to the public and the damage the public does even when on its best behavior, simply by being in the caves

…I would give you the whole cool science lecture right here, but you probably came for poetry, so here it is:

Visiting Howe Caverns

In the hollow throat
beneath the surface, listen:
a scrabble, movement.
Red-eyed salamanders
never see sun
yet avoid my feet
and the damage I do,
even unintended.
Their underground beach
sprawls into shadows.
Look: lichens line veins
in the rock, their green fingers
travel the grotto’s slick skin.
Blue haloes etch the walls.
Ahead, a wide pool
and pale stones strewn
like mirrored chips. Depth
seems a trick of reflection—
flashes of silvery fish,
and glints, fractions, pieces:
between surface and stones,
what I was a moment ago,
maybe still am. Lichens
sop up my breath.

 

The picture at the beginning of this post is an unidentified cavern, but it reminds me very much of Howe Caverns, with the water reflecting stalactites and artificial lighting needed in order to get any picture at all.

Visiting Howe Caverns appears in the collection Stars Crawl Out From Their Caves. If you enjoyed this poem you can read more of my work on this site or in the collection itself, which is available in both ebook and print.

Have a great week, and look for another poem next Monday. As always, comments welcome.