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Open Poetry #42
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Jaime Fradera
Senior Member
since 2000-11-25
Posts 843
Where no tyranny is tolerable

0 posted 2008-03-07 12:56 PM



The Arctic Wind.
I walk over to fully shut the window,
and check to make sure the heat is on max.
Though it is March, winter is not yet done.
That's a good thing,
because winter is my favorite season.
And even through the closed pane
I can still smell it.
The Arctic,
the land of incomprehensible chill,
The cold, the sweet,
the crisp, dry scent of winter.
The Arctic wind.
I ponder the hundreds of miles
it has traveled to reach me in this room.
I ponder from where it has traveled.
The flat and nearly featureless prairies of Alberta.
the immense land mass encompassing
the Yukon, the Northwest Territory,
the vallies of the Yukon and the Mc-kenzie,
ice-bound rivers rushing to the Arctic Ocean,
and westward to the vast state of Alaska;
the great source regions of the North,
where we get our polar continental air
here in the lower forty-eight.
I imagine a vast archipelago of islands in the polar sea.
I think of where Sir Franklin met his fate,
I think of floating, drifting, shifting pack ice than can crush an ocean going vessel.
I try to imagine leads of open water opening and closing, a frozen sea,
The Bering Sea, the Beauford Sea,
the labyrinth of ice-clogged straits and passages, uncharted,
that Aumondsen had to navigate
to open the Northwest Passage through the Arctic.
I imagine spruce forests.
I imagine lakes, frozen lakes and rivers
as they wait for Arctic dawn,
and the spring Sun
to finally creep over the southern horizon.
I imagine vast expanses of featureless tundra
above timberline,
where the ground is always frozen,
and where winter is never far away,
and nothing grows save mosses and likens.
I think of how, in just a few weeks,
the life-giving Sun will return, as it always does,
and then Life, in fantastic varieties and forms,
in a bewildering welter,
,a riot of beautiful and vivid colors, will erupt;
taking full advantage
of the brief, life-giving warmth
of the short months of round-the-clock sunshine ...
But I am writing of things I know nothing about.
I mean,
I haven't been anywhere, or anything.
Maybe Midnitesun is laughing at my ridiculous words.
Maybe Arctic ali is already laughing at me,
and can no doubt
point out more than just a few inaccuracies.
Maybe she is making fun of my pretensions,
writing about something
I know absolutely nothing about!
But if I can write something
that will make Ali laugh,
no matter how ridiculous or inaccurate,
it's okay.
To know, to just imagine she is laughing
makes me happy ... ...

DAM this stupid spell checker!!!!!!!!!
I got to stop this and eat dinner.





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Alison
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Rara Avis
since 2008-01-27
Posts 9318
Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!
1 posted 2008-03-07 01:01 AM


Jaime,

I didn't laugh and will never laugh "at you".  I am memerized by how much you see and how much you know.  You are one smart man.  Also, you write with great beauty.  I'll respond again after I have read this a few times.

Wonderful writing, my friend.

Alison

Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
2 posted 2008-03-07 07:35 AM


Amigo...you see with your heart and mind, and your words really do describe the expansiveness of the Arctic, far better than what I can do. (I would NEVER laugh at your visuals!  
Margherita
Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236
Eternity
3 posted 2008-03-07 07:36 AM


I imagine spruce forests.
I imagine lakes, frozen lakes and rivers
as they wait for Arctic dawn,
and the spring Sun
to finally creep over the southern horizon.


Dear Jaime, you created wonderful imagery here, I love it.

Love.
Margherita

jwesley
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563
Spring, Texas
4 posted 2008-03-07 07:48 AM


Totally agree with all the comments thus far my friend....you are, without a doubt, one of my favorite reads.

jimmy

secondhanddreampoet
Member Ascendant
since 2006-11-07
Posts 6394
a 'Universalist' !
5 posted 2008-03-07 05:53 PM


a fine 'write!'

applause!!

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