Shark on the Hillside
Photography, 7" x 10"
Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winningButterflies in Flight,Thames & Hudson, 2002. His documentary photography has been awarded the Europe’s prestigious Leica Medal of Excellence and published in numerous journals includingThe New England Review, New York Quarterly,andNorth American Review.
Pale Fire, Paler Ice
Jennifer Handy
1 Herein lies the entire poem 2 The rest is annotation 3 The poem begins in medias res 4 The poem begins after the ending 5 The poem begins with fire 6 The poem begins with ice 7 There is no inspiration 8 There is no polar ice 9 The lines are out of order 10 The lines are out of tune 11 The lines are notes of music 12 written for polar flute 13 An earlier, redacted version includes a one-string fiddle 14 The poem depends on wordless sound 15 The performance depends on drum 16 though the original poet somehow erased the required drum-tap lines 17 The polar bear plays the drum 18 The polar bear plays the drum / the poem 19 The polar bear recites / invents the poem 20 The new poem is based on the shifting motions of the moon 21 during the period known as Arctic winter 22 and the mysterious motions of the seals that emulate 23 the celestial lunar music that lures them, siren-like, 24 unto their death, a sadisticmusica universalis 25 The seals know nothing of the poem, 26 going about their odyssey unawares, 27 devoid of the presence of any grey-eyed goddess, 28 direct into the food chain, into the mouth of polar bear 29 The seals know nothing about the pale fire of greenhouse gases 30 or the melting of the ice 31 The seals know only the paler snow of Arctic places 32 that still gleams white against the ice 33 The poem has no themes, no abstract meaning 34 The poem is full of sound and fury, 35 a tale told by a dynamo, by an undisputed king, 36 by a people who would sell out their world for another dollar 37 The poem is full of pollution and full of polar fury 38 There is no poem 39 There is no music 40 only drum beats 41 only POEM-on-POEM-on-POEM