Terminus: Linsley's Glacier by Kim Weaver

 
 
 
a decorative line divider with curled ends and a snowflake at the center.
 
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"I was drawn to the idea of creating a love letter to our changing planet, so I tried to build the shapes and changes of the landscape into these poems. I used the topographic lines of Linsleys Glacier and the shape of the dividing ridge between Linsleys and the now-extinct Anderson Glacier." -Kim Weaver
 
a decorative line divider with curled ends and a snowflake at the center.
 

Meet the artist: Kim Weaver

Kim has worked as an environmental engineer, a Peace Corps volunteer, a high school teacher, and a curriculum developer for STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Her love of poetry was sparked in high school by an outstanding English teacher, leading her to study the time-honored combination of Civil Engineering and Poetry in college. She lives in Poulsbo, WA and is a frequent storyteller and some-time host of Story Night in Bremerton.

 
Three version of the same moutain view, labeled 1960, 2010, and 2015. The glacial ice on the peak diminishes significantly over time.l

More about Linsley's Glacier

Linsley's Glacier is an unofficially named glacier just south of Eel Glacier. Linsley's Glacier is on the opposite side of the ridge from where Anderson Glacier used to be. The officially named Anderson Glacier still appears on maps but, in truth, is lost. The ridge and some other quirks of geography mean that Linsley's Glacier still exists--but for how long?

This set of photos contrasts the near disappearance of the south-facing Anderson glacier (right) and the thinning but relative stability of the "Linsley" glacier perched at a higher elevation on the left.

 
 
a decorative line divider with curled ends and a snowflake at the center.
 

Full text with image descriptions:


The first poem, "What Remains?" is a concrete poem whose lines form contour lines of a glacier. On the first page the lines fill the page, on the second they fill about half the page, and on the third page there are only a few lines toward the bottom of the page. The text reads:
What Remains?
by Kim Weaver

No human heart has called you home,
but I have loved you, unseen. Feeble
warm arms reaching up, up. Icy fingers flowing down, down.
When you are gone, what will be etched in to the Earth
to mark your passing? Stark white calla lily curves, a memory - now a kingdom of sharp and grey.
What can I ask in the face of this? What wish is worth making? Only this - that we pass on the
same day, my cooling body curled like a comma around your last icy remnant. My final heat,
your last melt. Years flow by, what remains? Bleached white bones,
worn by generations of rains and gnawing teeth - the only
echoes of your strange geometries.

I have loved you, icy fingers flowing down, down.
Stark white curves - a memory - my cooling body
curled like a comma, your last melt.
What remains? Only echoes of
your strange geometries.

I loved you flowing down
a memory - your last.
What remains?
Only echoes.


The second poem, "Honesty in Ice," is also a concrete poem. Lines alternate between the left and right side of the page, as if on two sides of a ridgeline. The text reads:
Honesty in Ice
by Kim Weaver

There is honesty in ice.
The only arguments
with two sides
are the freeze
thaw line
and this decisive ridge
that separates
my brother's fate
from mine.

High above
the loud thousands
denying the testimony
of their own baking hides
listen for the hard blue truth
in the ice.
The empty cirque
where he once flowed beside me
amplifies
the only voices that matter -
the steady dripping --
my slow, grinding retreat.

The third and final poem's final eight lines dwindle in size from large to small font.
The text reads:
Inherited Fragments
by Kim Weaver

This generation will take it worst -
only knowing the ice at its most reduced.
They will speak in hushed fragments,
as their ancestors spoke of inherited heartaches:

Passenger pigeons…
“…flocks that blotted out the sun…”

…the great forests…
“…squirrels never touching the ground…”

…hand--drawn maps…
“…at the edge, thartharbe dragons…”

…and dragons…
“…their day will never come again.”

Last updated: April 7, 2023

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