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| Frank Hurley photograph of the ship, Endurance, August, 1915 |
"The ice is rafting up to a height of 10 or 15 ft. in places, the opposing floes are moving against one another at the rate of about 200 yds. per hour. The noise resembles the roar of heavy, distant surf. Standing on the stirring ice one can imagine it is disturbed by the breathing and tossing of a mighty giant below" – Sir Ernest Shackleton, Trans-Antarctica Expedition 1914 - 1917
A GHOST SHIP LIVES
Behind each salient pressure hummock
where 20 flashes blink, a still craves time.
There time, wearing thin shows ice closing in
round Endurance having yet to sink.
©2015 From The Blood Of Ymir stephaniepope mythopoetry.com
#ohjDaily Words: crave, hummock, blink, salient #mythopoetics #vss #4lines
notes
1. For excerpts of Shackelton’s journey to Antarctica in 1915 and for Frank Hurley’s August, 1915 image of the Endurance taken at night in the Antarctic winter darkness while trapped in the Weddell Sea, go to http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/Ernest%20Shackleton_Trans-Antarctic_expedition2.htm
2. Norse mythology’s name for the great "first" or archetypal giant is Ymir. Ymir translates as something akin to groaning. Shackleton writes in his diary how the sound of the permafrost moving underneath the trapped ship sounds like a great giant awakening from a disturbed sleep. For more on Norse mythology see http://norse-mythology.org/
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