April 16, 2011: Why They Went, Elizabeth Bradfield
Why They Went
Elizabeth Bradfield
that men might learn what the world is like at the spot where the sun does not decline in the heavens.
—Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Frost bitten. Snow blind. Hungry. Craving
fresh pie and hot toddies, a whole roasted
unflippered thing to carve. Craving a bed
that had, an hour before entering,
been warmed with a stone from the hearth.
Always back to Eden—to the time when we knew
with certainty that something watched and loved us.
That the very air was miraculous and ours.
That all we had to do was show up.
The sun rolled along the horizon. The light never left them.
The air from their warm mouths became diamonds.
And they longed for everything they did not have.
And they came home and longed again.
==
[Antarctica!]
On this day in…
2010: Anxiety, Frank O’Hara
2009: The Continuous Life, Mark Strand
2008: An old story, Bob Hicok
2007: you can’t be a star in the sky without holy fire, Frank X. Gaspar
2006: For the Sisters of the Hotel Dieu, A.M. Klein
2005: Other Lives And Dimensions And Finally A Love Poem,
Bob Hicok
