Magic and Stories

Daring the Waves | Metamorphosis (Transmutation) | Woman Who Thought She Could Fly | River Crossing | Swimming or Sinking | A Good Girl | The Dredger | Gifts | Explorer | Lion Tamer | The Moon So Large | Wedding Gift | Test Poem | Darven c code

South Pole Explorer

Ice closing in, shifting and creaking,
ice mountains towering, lurching and looming,
eyes rimed with frost, hands numb and lifeless,
feet and limbs rigid, losing all movement.

Was it worth the journey across the frozen seas and glaciers,
the struggle to keep the boat moving till it had to be abandoned,
the long and rigorous haul across the snowfields and tundra,
was it, after all, worth the traverse, and at the end of it
only the biting cold, the whirling snow, and blizzards blowing?

What did he think, alone amidst the white vastness,
the spindle masts of ghost ships rigid in seas of glass,
their decks and timbers creaking under the weight of frost,
did he feel the ghoul hands stroking him with frozen fingers
his lips sealed by the wind’s blast, his ears closed to it’s howling?

In his mind did he picture meadows glowing with sunshine,
in his heart did he remember the sweet warmth of love
before the snow and the cold completely overcame him
and sealed him in the encroaching ice forever?