A poem about the chaos, control and passivity of the Alaskan wilderness. Written in the summer of 2017 from the steamy window of The Lodge at Whale Pass, a comfortable home in the middle of a forbidding and threatening landscape. I wanted to capture the fear I felt at knowing so many elements of this Alaskan world could be lethal, and yet the same elements give it its beauty.
This is where the sun shines all day
and the darkness never rests.
Where the water rides itself, tumultuous,
and the ocean floor broods, peacefully.
This is where my dreams will come to rest.
The lodge on the lake,
in the crux of the mountains crest,
a place where the frozen breeze
upsets the fire's hearty exhale
and the bears beating heart
moves to the dancing whale.
As threatening as it is obsolete,
I'll take shelter in my fresh sheets
and listen to the lullaby
of the pitter patter of her feet.
The forest seethes with anger,
dissipating the steam
that boils from the cradle of the world.
The erect spruce saunters in the wind
the chieftains of this island in the woods,
they guard all the life thats hidden,
I look from the loft and shiver.
Left to right: The only way to reach to the lodge, a bear on a spruce, and the view from the loft - all of which were taken by me during the writing of the poem.
