Another Year of Waiting: Polar Poetry Slam
"Another year of waiting!"
It's a call many a polar explorer has cried when his plans turned out different than hoped. Usually it was the fault of the ice. Grabbing the sides of a ship and locking it like a vise. Bound to their floating homes and forced to "shelter in place" expeditions often spent two or three years, sometimes more, before being set free. Keeping spirits high and avoiding the dark thoughts of uncertainty was a top priority. Many of them turned to poetry, plays and other creative outlets to survive the tedium and to remain hopeful.
"Under circumstances of inactivity such as we were now placed in, and with every prospect of its continuance for a very large portion of a year, I was desirous of finding some amusement for the men during this long and tedious interval..." (Admiral William Parry, from deep in the Northwest Passage, 1819)
It is in that vein that we welcome you to our Polar Poetry Slam! Please enjoy these lines of verse - and PLEASE SEND US YOUR OWN! (they cannot be worse....) Submit your contributions (to be published here) to eric@polarexplorers.com or comment via Facebook here.
