In my walks
I try to get back to knowing
To feeling
Outside the realm of names, and places
Labels
Maps, waypoints
Pointing to attractions
Things to see: checklists
I go past the names
On my map
To the end of a dry range, where sheep
Stand with their herdsmen
Alone on a desert floor
Blackbrush
And low sage
Out there I wander
Into a canyon
Realizing at once my success:
I have left the names behind
My steps, now, are not a product of
Going to see: rather
I am learning to feel
And know
And partake in the silent peace
Of the unnamed
Places that live
Unseen, but not forgotten
And there, at once
I rest my body,
Sitting on a slab of limestone
And remember
What I have come to know
And feel
The quiet rhythm of land
Bending under stone
Arching rock
Resting in the peace of being not named
But known
March 21, 2021
Otto De Groff has spent most of his life living in Utah. As a young man, Otto’s father often took him (along with his brothers) to western Utah, where they spent days exploring, hiking, and rockhounding. These experiences gave Otto a rooted respect and love for Utah’s wild places, especially those found along the state’s western edge.
After serving an LDS mission in Mexico, Otto studied at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation. Currently, Otto is pursuing a master’s degree at BYU in the same field, with a special emphasis on bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D. K. Bailey) forest ecology and variation in growth rates of these trees through time. While studying at BYU, Otto met and married his wife, Maddie, who is from St. George, Utah. They live together with their son, Ferris, in Utah Valley.