Crevasse (Dec '67)
Colin Wornham and I, driving the "Hairy Breeks" in company with Dave
Brooke, Nick Mathys and their "Mobsters", were on the 1967 Bob Pi
reconnaissance: the hinge zone between the floating Brunt Ice Shelf and the
inland ice. We had found a number of changes in the crevassing which a
year later we would have regarded as insignificant but which worried us at
the time - we were after all seeking a safe route for heavy tractors.
After completing the crossing we decided to try a return route further
east. Half way down the main slope to the shelf below we encountered a
field of large crevasses, all completely bridged but very obvious. We
probed at the edge of one and then, impressed, carefully beat a retreat.
That night I started my poem:
The tell tale pea-pod depression,
The waterless false bedded canal,
Running straight - running nowhere
Beware a trap
A tap, a probe with the long ice chisel
A neat circular bottomless hole
An aquamarine eye gazes up at me
Tempting me
"Come close, poet
"Come and look."
But what am I you one eyed hag?
A fool?
Your enchantment is that of a sorceress
Luring me to the brink
Of your death distilling cauldron.
A second probe, oblique
The hag now squints and leers
Taunting me yet closer
But I see danger behind that bland blue stare:
A gaping maw,
A cavernous belly
An insatiable void,
And teeth of shining crystal
Shining crystal, yes
For there within your hellish throat
A glimpse
A hint of beauty.
I will cut you through
And lay you open to the sky.
Let the sun play his iridescent rays
Upon your stately chandeliers,
Your fine cut glass
Your diadems
Which no Dutch diamond cutter could equal;
Let me marvel at your frieze of frozen lace.
And this is not your total wealth:
For you please more than eye
Your diadems chime in tune
As rich wine glasses
Or chink and clink
With the merry metallic ring
Of an elven forge and elven laughter
Tinker-bells
Fairy-bells
How can such joy
Such beauty
Be entombed in such a place of dread
You blue black pit
You man-trap
You... crevasse.
The use of "diadems chiming" refers to the enormous six sided but
multi-layered ice crystals. In one crevasse which I descended from
curiosity I found examples with two inch sides - one crystal would cover
the palm of the hand and be two to three inches thick, clear like glass,
faceted catching the sun's rays and when flicked the chimed, perhaps not
like wine glasses but certainly surprisingly and beautiful in that
surprise.