North Park.

• Author: Brosman, Catharine Savage
• Position: Poem

Among tall aspen--leafy, elegant--and spruce, severe, the road has crested over Willow Creek Pass, leading from Grand County and the enormous basin-land called Middle Park into its smaller kin, North Park. It's neat, as if an architect had laid it out, with mountains on all sides, setting off the smooth green stretch of northern meadows. Cattle animate the scene, some grazing, heads pointed downwind, others moving single-file, to water, or on some whimsy of their own. Streams meander here and there, marked by cottonwoods or willows. Elsewhere, hay lies in fresh bales or has been stacked already. A few low spots are alkaline--white or discolored crystal stuff. The world is well away; the rustic, unpretentious town where we have lunch is Walden, and Thoreau, if he were here, would recognize a kindred spirit, though he might go even farther, settling by a pond where bison wallow. We too like...