I may be messy-haired, but I am about as happy as a Sunday gurl can be. Here I am, me ’n my first copy of my very first poetry book held in my very own hands. So excited! How fabulous it would have been for my parents to have seen this book and to have seen what the trip to Antarctica brought to life in me. How lucky I am to have had this incredible opportunity! And to go with my dear friend Faye! How pleased I am that I took heed of the insistence I felt to write.
In the midst of this joy, I am working to understand my responsibility both to my gifts and to Antarctica. I have written poetry forever. Over the last 14 years, I have devoted myself to writing a daily 14-line musing about Peace. There have been countless other poems, many written during Poetry Under the Painting’s five- or six-year stretch. Recently in my stint as Poetry Laureate in Lewisburg, I have had the opportunity to write Celebratory Poems and Occasional Poems in my little borough. What a privilege.
Preparing for the trip did make me nervous. I wasn’t certain I would be sturdy enough to do all that might be required of me. Conversations with Faye revealed she wasn’t all that confident either. Finally we crooked our little fingers (metaphorically, as we were talking on the phone) and pinky-swore that we would go off on this trip as if we were kindergarteners. Hand-in-hand, certain that there would be obstacles, but aware that we were together and would help one another rise up. And rise up we did. There were experiences to be had that we had no way of imagining when we got on the plane in Philadelphia — and a hard time believing we’d enjoyed when we disembarked there 18 days later.
As much as the notion of Ann against the elements
Makes me Nervous. As. Hell.
It’s the Heartshakes and Aftershocks I most fear.
Am I ready to be destabilized so that I can
Finally find my feet?
Yes. Oh, yes, I was ready. I don’t think I understood how uneven that ground was, how long my feet would struggle to find purchase in a worldview completely destabilized by Antarctica’s very existence. Only then could I begin to envision the impact of a book that I wrote might be able to have on the world Back Home. Antarctica is so Beautiful and so foreign — and we must all ourselves to be drawn in and excited by the Wonder that it is.
The impact of this journey has been particularly strong as I begin to understand how crucial Antarctica is to our world, holding as it does, 90% of the clean water, and how cavalier the world is being with it. It is a place of Wisdom and great Peace. This is a message that many don’t want to hear as they work to begin extraction or militarization of this frozen Wonderland. Antarctica will not make that easy for them. My paean to Antarctica is encouragement for us to make it very difficult for the power brokers as well.
There are no citizens in Antarctica. But we are citizens of the world, even if we don’t notice that every day. Antarctica can remain as our legacy of Peace — not to conquer but to be astonished by and grateful for.
All hail the whales and the penguins, the lounging seals and the many birds. All hail the wind, water, ice, and rock that comprise this incredible place. All hail the beautiful blues and greys and whites. I’d love if you bought my book. You can buy it here. Please write a review. Please tell your friends.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace, Blessed Be.