[ad_1]
Edited by Dava Sobel
1. THE SOUTHERN LIGHTS AT –50° FAHRENHEIT

—a zeitgeber
When winds were bearable, we sought bliss,

sat, admired the aurora australis

as an escape from our blackest abyss.
We gazed up into rarefied air, distinct
and pristine in each and every echelon,

an atmospheric phenomenon,

solar wind collisions of protons
and electrons higher in the exosphere.
Who needs Parthenon or Beginning of Venus

when blue lights swirl very low, pink coronas kiss

clouds, neon greens arc, deep reds stripe throughout

stars. We invoke therapeutic by kinesis.
2. LAKE VOSTOK

—a zeitgeber
Frantic phone sent us to the Pole of Chilly.

We maneuvered bit by bit, sought a managed

technique via shifting drifts in our Hägglund.
At camp, they drilled to 4,000 meters
to make contact with a subglacial lake and wrangle

accretion ice and microbe samples,

tens of millions and millions of a long time old, fragile.
Immediately after, we warmed ourselves in close proximity to place heaters.
We could be on Europa, on untold

frozen moons form special species unfold

the quilt of the cosmos piece blocks maintain

no bias embrace the uncooked edge, uncontrolled.
Author’s Observe: The rhyme scheme for this sort that I invented (primarily based on the time period “zeitgeber,” which means an external cue that impacts the way the system is controlled by circadian rhythms or time cycles) is aaabcccbaaaa and signifies a few months with sunlight higher than the horizon, one month of twilight, three months of darkness, 1 thirty day period of twilight, and four months of sun previously mentioned the horizon.
[ad_2]
Source connection
