Ice Lines

from the series WATERS I HAVE KNOWN_Ice Lines i
Oil on paper
2010
760 x 1050 MM (v x h)
This work is available from The Diversion
THIS WORK HAS SOLD

AT HOME IN ANTARCTICA

In this place, silence has a voice 

wide-ranging as the continent. 

Some say it's on the cusp 

of madness, the way it hums 

and stutters, mutters to itself 

in quietest tones. 

In this place, the universe 

brims. Inside absence,

presence. Inside distance, 

dust and our sleeping earth

dreaming beneath her thin blue

mask of ice. 

In this place, the necessity 

of memory, recollections

of a loved one's face, shape

of laughter, weight of breath. 

In this place, nostalgia 

roams, patient as slow

hands on skin transparent

as melt-water. Nights are light

and long. Shadows settle

on the shoulders of air. 

Time steps out of line 

here stops to thaw

the frozen hearts of icebergs. 

Sleep isn't always easy in this place

where the sun stays up all night

and silence has a voice. 

CB - Explorers Cove, Taylor Dry Valleys, Antarctica 2005

detail i