The wind howls
At night
Over broad bedrock
And salt
In time, the storm clouds
Chase at each other
Bleating like sheep
Herds, below
Taking with them the whole sky
Fleeting, star projections
Mirrors of sand
And patterns, connected
And disconnected
Places farther away than time
But close
The howl
Is incessantly torturous
Amazing in its owning of the air
And yet, it passes
And takes with it a dust of dry sand
Pellets of old rock
Battering against the sheer face
Running wild
Eating the air
Misting before the dark
Shadow of rain
That comes, falling
Out across the open flats
The expanse
New, pungent, cleansing
The whole land awakes
To give thanks
March 28, 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.