North Pacific Panorama
Poem
The National Archives of Scotland
Kenneth White is a poet, writer and essayist based in France.
www.corecreativeresearch.com/collaborators/kennethwhite
NORTH PACIFIC PANORAMA
Fraser River Delta
Coming in by plane
you see it fanned out
west and south-west
into the Strait of Georgia
stretches of mud and sand
with fragments of volcanic rock
perpetually redistributed
by wind-driven waves
and longshore currents
home at this moment
to ten thousand Snow Geese
feeding on the flats
getting ready
to make their moves
across the territories.
An Examination of the Coast
Survey expedition, 18th century
Precious little of it
straightlined, measurable
brokenness
extreme brokenness
is the rule
on the continental side
openings innumerable
all ending abruptly
in icebound aporia
to the west a scattering of islets
and isolated rocks
their contours blurred
by fog or squally rain
this chart I have drawn so carefully
looks perilously close
to the calligraphy of a madman.
Kukak Bay, morning
A timeless stillness
only the swoosh and tweeter
of the wind-generator
hills covered
with willow and alder
snowstreaked mountains
back of them
a range still higher
absolutely immaculate
on a shoreline boulder
a keen-eyed white-headed eagle
keeps a lookout.
On the Bering Strait
Here where we are
there is next to nothing
since the ice every year
scours the shore
no life goes on between the tides
but to stand and listen closely
on the stone and in the wind
is to be aware of a distant tonality
that delights the mind.
A Glossary of Ice
1. Frazil
At inception
a frail lacey fuzz
scarcely articulate.
2. Nilas
The context densifies
considerably
turning slowly into
a mobile
unstable mass.
3. Gray
Solid matter
sure of itself
more and ever more
compacted.
4. Pack
First year, opaque
about five feet thick
second year, luminous blue
say ten feet through
can be closed
(bunched up
offering no passage)
or open –
lanes leading through it
wreathed with frost smoke.
5. Paleocrystic
Superpacked
up there in the polar zone
absolutely on its own.
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