It’s hot here in Florida so I am thinking of something cool. Alaska! Ten years ago Steve and I traveled with good friends John & Susan to Alaska on a Celebrity cruise. A National Park Service naturalist described for us in great detail the formation and movement of glaciers across mountains. It made such an impression that I felt inspired to write a poem about it. Whether one stands alone or joins with others, never doubt the power of One.
Strength to Shape a Mountain
(Reflection after Glacier Bay National Park naturalist’s talk)
It starts with one,
Six-pointed, crystalline, clear
Snowflake,
Which could melt on my tongue,
Or mesmerize on my windowpane,
Or join its sisters in the contours of a snow angel,
Or rest in the crevasse of an Alaskan mountain range named Fairweather,
Where by locking its crystal form into trillions of other snowflakes
And bonding its frozen liquid to form one solid river of blue ice—
So heavy it flows on its super-heated base of energy—
Over the granite walls of a mountain,
Scouring,
Pushing,
Pulverizing,
Carving,
The power of one single snowflake
Will shape a mountain into something new.
© Janice Shull; written aboard the MS Volendam, August 15, 2008
Dear Sister Shull 