The Last March, Part 3

Snow builds up outside Captain Scott's Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans in Ross Island, Antarctica, in this picture taken in August 2006. This time capsule of Antarctic exploration is being given a make-over to save it from the harsh polar weather. For nearly a century the wooden shack has withstood some of the most extreme weather in the world.


Landscape

Ahead lie
The hulking mass
Of frozen snow and petrified rock
Charted as Ross Island.
Icy water laps
At its leaden sides
Leaving a crystal coat
On its black roots.

And beyond the frozen isle –
Interminable ice,
Snow crusted to a flat plain,
Stretching out in all directions.

An eerie beauty
Surrounds this land
The way the muted glow
Of an azure halo
Signifies an almost perfect
Innocence.

One can almost hear
The slightest tinkling
Of a thousand
Silvery chimes,
Studding the frosted landscape.

The deep-throated boom of the ship’s cannon
Sounds a farewell volley,
Breaking the silence,
And dispersing the tinkling sounds
To the icy air.

Winds rise
Sweeping ‘round the travelers;
And, gliding past them,
Spray mists of finely grained snow
To the air;
Then sweep out into the distance beyond.

Soon,
In the distance,
Five darkened figures
Appear on Beardmore Glacier –
As pinpoint statues,
High atop an immense base of frozen snow:
Dwarfed to minuteness,
Yet resolutely placed –
Poised toward the Pole.


Looming in front of them –
Frozen falls:
Crystal cataracts,
Their flowing fluid
Bounding over the height,
And cascading –
Then rushing
To the deep ravine below.

Yet no movement at all –
Only the silence –
And a mass of solidly frozen ice.