1
The intensity of my grief hits the mountains across Eclipse Sound, and then echoes throughout Arctic. There’s nobody around. I can barely see the town below the hill, nestled within the valley of barren tundra, across from the tiny airport, my only access to the south. I’m alone amidst this desolate landscape and there’s nowhere to hide. No trees or buildings or distractions. It’s just me in the depths of my suffering and all my faults and mistakes of the past are exposed underneath the spotlight of the midnight sun.Shannon Mullen
2
Dream of the Tundra SwanDusk felland the cold came creeping, cam prickling into our hearts. As we tucked beaksinto feathers and settled for sleep, our wings knew. That night, we dreamed the journey:ice-blue sky and the yodel of flight, the sun's pale wafer, the crisp drink of clouds. We dreamed ourselves so far aloftthat the earth curved beneath usand nothing sang but a whistling vee of light. When we woke, we were covered with snow. We rose in a billow of white.Joyce Sidman