Sunday, January 25, 2026

( via / via )

The Auroras in Ballard.

      "Fire and Sleet and Candlelight

For this you’ve striven
   Daring, to fail:
Your sky is riven
   Like a tearing veil.

For this, you’ve wasted
   Wings of your youth;
Divined, and tasted
   Bitter springs of truth.

From sand unslakèd
   Twisted strong cords,
And wandered naked
   Among trysted swords.

There’s a word unspoken,
   A knot untied.
Whatever is broken
   The earth may hide.

The road was jagged
   Over sharp stones:
Your body’s too ragged
   To cover your bones.

The wind scatters
   Tears upon dust;
Your soul’s in tatters
   Where the spears thrust.

Your race is ended—
   See, it is run:
Nothing is mended
   Under the sun.

Straight as an arrow
   You fall to a sleep
Not too narrow
   And not too deep."

—Elinor Wylie

"Mine! All mine!"

"Though the journal was created for and by members of the expedition, readers back home were always a consideration. In early issues Shackleton notes that widespread production and distribution from the South Pole would be nearly impossible but implies that circulation among a public readership back home in England was a future goal. This goal was realized when Smith, Elder, and Company of London published a three-volume edition as an exact reproduction of the South Polar Times." —Callie Beattie via via @harryskeeler.bsky.social

So many have gone to order books it crashed the website.

No comments: