Antarctic Thesaurus
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ice berg ice cap ice cave ice core ice flowing ice forming icescape indescribable
iceberg
Thursday 27 th. January 1954
In the mist phantom icebergs, immense and of the palest iridescent blue, appear and disappear.
Jack Ward, Mawson diary (1954)
When frozen
Their shape is sharp
Jagged edges slicing.
Giant icebergs growing
In coldness of oceanic minds
Only tips emerge, the purity submerged
hollow jagged cathedrals of alabaster white
an ethereal blue entices lustre of buoyant mountains
Floating further from home, murmurs and temperature
hairline cracks, a spectre of majestic purity
fracturing and splintering, becoming
contextual representations.
Melting, deliquesce
Lost in lilac
Raw untamed
Thoughts contained
Within shapes, products
of the imagination, restricted
by the confines of language, words.
The true purity of unsubjected thought hidden.
Behind carefully deranged symbols and punctuation
Complete communication of pure thought is impossible.
The global warming of thoughts into language. Smoothing
Edges and creases into a homogenous disembodied
thought, now easily manipulated within the
confines of language. Single streams
of once pure thoughts, now
linear, unrecognisable.
A A Davis, Sydney 2007
Poem written in response to the animation Ice sound
