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Tag Archives: Antartica
And when I lay me down to sleep..
this must be where sea-farers come
to draw their last breath
to sink into death
to rest
to rest
Life and Death Enterprise
in the ice canyon
where we berth
whalers, oilers once thrived
drunk at the font of enterprise
harvesting fine cetacean fat
supping from the glacial slabs
till fire or foe sank their bones
to frigid stony graveyard
humans being one of a few
species that outlive their breeding years
another being whales
larry wonders if
this be to permit elders
transmit their wise to young
the tanker rearing
only bow above water
rutting, rotting rusting body
an undergirdle
for our craft
tells a seerer tale
the tern sky-dives for krill
the harpoon for the kill
the skua pries
the limpet dry
greed repeats
nor do we
stop our eyes
from our feast
Crossing
mid-afternoon, we return north-west
squeezing through narrow Antartic Sound
named not for the Continent
but the first boat that slipped
between the tiny gap
that keeps our footprints
on east weddell secret
a while longer
after taking so many photos
i miss the one just outside my porthole
three penguins on an ice floe
dash madly
fleeing us
crossing bosphorus
Too Cool for Words
Ice Walk
jammed into ice
a ship-stick in the popsicle?
we alight on three-feet fast ice
(hitched to shore, thus safe)
around us thousand-year ice-bergs laze
in blue-tinted purity, unsalted
i could stay forever
but they give us 2 hours
and hot chocolate
to leave the Emperor Penguin
Weddell Sea and its seal as well
alone
Half-Moon Landing
Spurned by Barrientos, we continue towards more clement crescent
Half-moon island welcomes the zodiacs and their contents, 10 by 10
ice-bergs bluff us into momentarily believing their austere elegance
till suddenly sinking bottom deep in virgin snow
sliding downhill with the penguins (seeking still the up)
we have no choices left to celebrate but
the clumsy accident of the route we were dealt
Land H.O.
we approach antartic landfall after breakfast
objective: shetland islands south
specifically, barrientos,
part of the Aitcho Group
thus dubbed by brits in short
for their Admiralty’s
Hydrographic Office
the naked eye now sees
black rock outcrops
rising from blue-grey waters
tipped by white ice
the bow purports to split through metres of spray
the ocean spits right back
Shipboard
out on the Drake Passage
the swells are moderate
the moderates aren’t swell
( the conservatives
and liberals dominate)
the former Norwegian PM
(onboard as keynote speaker)
is serious and stodgy, I’m afraid
she doesn’t take my comments
on communists and culling well
still the starboard port-hole
the right-left view, so to speak
in my little cabin sanctuary
is more than grand enough
to compensate
It’s the end of the world as we know it
The southernmost point you can reach by car….
… but we have alternative transportation (anchors aweigh at 6 pm today)..
antipodal 2011 