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Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation. This is Forest Stories.

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I am the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned

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out in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if

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it wasn't for this forest right here
in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I
thought maybe it's time that you get to

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know what has inspired me for thirty
years. Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation. Welcome back to the
forest. Is it Silver Lake or is

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it Swan Lake? This lake right
here inside this beautiful forest in South Charlotte,

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North Carolina. One road that leads
you right up to the lake says

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it's Silver Lake, and then you
have another road just a few feet up

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and it says Swan Lake. It's
a mystery. Is it two different families?

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Is it two different journeys? When
they created this area of the world,

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did somebody just automatically name the lake? The lake itself is a very

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lonely lake, and the reason why
is because it's been pretty much labeled a

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private lake. There's one owner,
and from what I understand, that owner

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paid a dollar for the lake because
nobody else wanted to pay the insurance because

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if they opened it up for swimming, well, you know how people are

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when it comes to swimming. They
don't swim safely. And nobody was going

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to put a lifeguard out here.
So the owner put up the signs all

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the way around the lake has said
no trespassing, so people don't use the

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lake. Every now and then you
might see a kayak out there or a

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canoe of some sort. But I
often wonder if the little blue house here

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on this road, the owner goes
out there and screams like an older woman,

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going, get off my lake,
Get out of here, you get

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get But is it Silver lake or
is it Swan Lake. I do know

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that the water from my creek,
that slow paced creek, makes its way

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to that lake, and I do
get to look at this lake from the

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walks that I take from the angle
high atop Heartbreak Hill to the angle that

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I'm getting right now, which is
deep into the forest right here in this

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gigant stack of leaves, when it's
only twenty four degrees. I was anxious

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to see the lake today because being
twenty four, has the lake frozen over?

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Has it ever frozen over? And
what I have the courage and the

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confidence to grab my ice skates and
do like we once stayed up in Montana

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and skate across that lake. I'm
not sure that lake would be nice to

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me. I think it might reach
out and capture me. But Silver Lake,

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that's a pretty name to it,
but I don't see any silver around

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it. Swan Lake, I get
the elegance of that, but I've never

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seen a swan on the lake.
A lot of blue hair and crane.

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I've seen a lot of ducks and
geese, but never a swan. Maybe

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we should rename the lake. We
do know that it is my dream,

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my aspiration, my willingness as well
as my passion that this private lake become

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a place for writers and other creative
people time in the future, probably long

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after I'm gone. I would love
for this one area of the world to

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become a forced with a lake and
a slow paced stream that feeds that lake.

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And there's so many places inside this
forest with no housing that a creative

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mind can come and just feel the
presence of whatever it is that's here.

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Hey, thanks for listening to the
conversation.