Expedition
Log
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Sheila
Nickerson
Three Poems of Juneau,
Alaska
From the East: First
Light, Gastineau Channel
- Imagine moving like that,
over each mountain,
- touching each tree, leaf,
needle.
- Imagine my fingers, tracing
your face,
- illuminating the map of all
those years--
- even the ones before I first
set out,
- brave and full of love, into
that strange land.
When Spring Came and
the Blue Bear Came to Town
- When the blue bear came to
town,
- we played our
saxophone.
- Listening, it shook its head
in salmonberry bushes,
- pushed and rooted in the
earth.
- It came each night, at
dusk,
- to Gastineau--the avenue at
the edge--
- to our dumpsters,
porches,
- and steps sagging with
rain.
- We played, we sang, we
clapped our hands,
- hoping it would cross to
us;
- but it came only as far as
our garbage,
- then turned back. We, too,
returned home,
- speaking of the wildness of
it,
- the blueness of it--like
glaciers, like denim.
- We could not find the
words.
- We followed, each night, as
far as we dared,
- with our saxophone, with our
French horn--
- a line of minstrels bound to
a cave
- through a wood of ancient
spruce
- wild as cellos not yet
carved.
Trees
"What are they thinking, the
sheep on the hills?"
--
Bryan Guinness
- What are they thinking, the
trees on the hills?
- They could be the souls of
those who fell
- on their way to heaven or
those who loved
- this place too much and
decided to root
- in the rocks instead of
ascending in light.
- They are transformed in
snow; they could be
- an order of angels sent by
Oertha, guard
- of the north. They carry
layers of light and
- dark in their arms; they
could be records of
- time, played over by needles
of wind and ice,
- or messengers waiting for
orders to run
- down the slopes with their
sharp, green words.
- What are they doing, the
trees on the hills --
- remembering fogs and
springtimes of fern?
- Before we grow old we must
go to them there
- on the slopes and ask them
how it will be
- when we climb into other
shapes -- and if theirs
- is a good one to take,
holding green to the hills.
(top)
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