Page 32 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

May 1 2016

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Lake Itasca Cabins

Sunny

The Game Plan for the day was to simply Be at the Headwaters of the Mississippi River at a

pre-arranged time so a Video recording over the Internet could be made from the Live Web
Cam at the Rocks that separated Lake Itasca from the Mississippi River.

Having never been to Lake Itasca, Minnesota, the day before Lori and I had driven to the site
and looked at where the Web cam was, the Start, the Lake and after arriving from a long truck

drive, we were both too exhausted to stay up but slept hard that last night in April.

MAY 1st I Woke and walked alone down to the waters of the Mississippi gathered together in
Lake Itasca and though called the Source, rivers fed the lake, I would start here and call it

“Headwaters” for my journey down the Mississippi River.

It was pre-dawn. The weather was crisp for Spring. We had left 90 and 100 degree temps be-

hind . Today May 1st felt and looked like what we called Sprinter. More Winter than spring
but not true Spring and not true winter: Sprinter.

Barren Trees agreed with me and as I walked to the Lake I could tell Spring was a rumor the
trees , plants and nature hadn’t heard of yet,

Except for the Birds.

As I watched the sky shed its dark cloak of night for the amber hues of growing light, the qui-

et was shattered by such a cacophony of noise I could only imagine an orchestration warming
up their instruments and this particular natural amphitheater had to be a Philharmonic of epic

proportions so much so I wrote poems about that phenomenon I heard but could not see.