Thursday, 14 January 2010

Pastoral


.

File:Caribou.jpg




Low winter sun, simmering in its distant forge
Foreshortens noon out on the glaring floe
Where northern wind still keens, a stormy petrel.
Dazzled before the New World's final seizure
The hallucinated trekker wanders. Stalled,
Dazed, listless, stupefied -- all one wanted,
Through those long hours following the native track
Was to lie down, doze, let the dumb centuries
Crystallize into dreaming permafrost
Beneath which one lies forever mute, time-glazed,
Heavy with inattention to oneself
As day's embers in the glowing west are drenched,
While around one's remains gather curious
Caribou, seeking tundra pastures new
.




File:Ren on Disco-tour.jpg





Male caribou in Alaska: photo by Dean Biggins, 2005 (US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Reindeer on Disco-Tour, northern Sweden: photo by Jürgen Howaldt, 2004

2 comments:

  1. Sorry I couldn't stretch the Caribou into wide-angle for you... but a gentle click will do the trick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Heavy with inattention to oneself
    "


    yes... it feels so heavy when we do not pay attention to ourselves...

    how well... how deep you see...

    ReplyDelete