Poem for the Day - The Ship inside the Cavern

     



A glimpse of the Aurora
from within the cavern in the wall of the shelf-ice
of the Mertz Glacier Tongue,
Commonwealth Bay, Adelie Land,
Australasian Antarctic Expedition,
December 1913. Photo by Frank Hurley.

The Ship inside the Cavern

The Aurora is caught
in a clamped iced year,
an amphitheatre of walls,
a large cave that puddles
each time winter leaves.
The great opening of ice
looks out as if the ship
has been emptied into the sea.
A chiaroscuro of light and dark
shadows and dims the bridge,
the sail-less masts, the hull
buoyant above the water-line.
Accompanied by great clumps
of ice there is a scent of brine,
damp boots in circuitry
from anchorage to sled.
Beyond, distance looms like shallow
breath. Mawson and Hurley
catching up with the shuffle
of Adélie penguins.