john torrington was a member of sir john franklin's ill-starred expedition to find the north-west passage 1845-48(?). he was buried in perma frost on beechey island, a bleak spot in the arctic circle and exhumed by a team of scientists in 1984. there are plenty of photographs of him online, which are disturbing and touching and inspired me to write some haiku about him. he died on the first of january 1846 so it may be fitting to post a few of them here now.
they were all written on 2.1.09.
realisation:
black hopelessness setting in
a trap, no way out.
arctic, freezing air
desolation on bleak shore.
enveloping death.
unveiled, woken up
brought back through many winters.
what are you thinking?
lingering, slow death
missing england's mellow sun.
failing to return -
storm over beechey -
strange people digging me up.
hi, long time no see!
No comments:
Post a Comment