An Abandoned Factory

A Factory Of Life

By Seth Lesondak

A boy rides his bike past an abandoned factory

Its windows smashed

The door hangs by a solitary screw

Shards of beer bottles litter the front lawn

what ugliness, what filth,what sadness

A reminder of war and hard financial times

……………………………….

Behind an abandoned factory

Vines take in the sun

Bright yellow daffodils sprout from mossy soil

Like a phoenix rising from its ashes

Prairie grasses lighten to beige with with the passing of summer

What beauty, what life, what silence

A reminder of natures loving presence

…………………………………….

Inspired by a painting by Elizabeth Steinhoff

A personal essay

Beauty in a Small Place

My family has always kept me in close connection with nature; I enjoy nature to its fullest because of this. I take time to go for walks, to boat, and to go to the park. I raise animals, and work on a farm. Nature is my greatest and most open connection to the world.

            I started exploring the natural world at age three, with a ski trip to northern Wisconsin. It has become a tradition of family and friends since then and we still go today. We have become good friends with the owner of the cabin at which we stay, and I am a regular violin player at her small café. I appreciate that my first trip into wilderness happened to be the Wisconsin kind, full of brittle pine, ice and lots and lots of powdered sugar snow.

            Another outdoor tradition with my family and friends has been the annual trip to the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is a backpacking trip into the most untouched place of the Great Lake states. This place brings forth its beauty in the form of old growth forest and stunning sunsets that color the sky over the Lake Superior shoreline a dazzling series of pinks, purples and reds.

             Today, I took a trip to the shore of Lake Wingra. I made sure to take the time to look around and appreciate my surroundings. Still, I find it incredible that there could be such raw and untouched nature in such a small place as Madison, Wisconsin.

A Shady Wonder

one of my first poems. 

A Shady Wonder

By Seth Lesondak

 

Its bark is rough like fresh dried brick,

carrying the natural,

beautiful ruggedness of a nature trail.

It is a giant octopus,

tentacles swaying,

squirting green leafy ink.

It is a miner, tunneling underground

where I cannot see.

Does it serve me a purpose?

What can I say?

I sit in its shade.