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Niveous Skies
This story is a wind
Arriving from the sun
Magnetospheric particles collide
Birthing aurora borealis,
Prismatic ribbons of light
Forming above the Kara Sea
Past the Nordenskiöld Archipelago
Magnetic fields demarcate
These lines of extinction
Drawn in distant reaches
Siberian land of the polar bear
Seal-hunter at the edge of sea ice
Maritime transmutative shamans
Mythic shape-shifters
Become human at home
Breathed into being by Daedal Spirits
As foretold Polaris is born
Guiding star of a lost tribe
Daughter of Ursa Major,
Resplendent mother of the night sky
Artemis
Polaris bundled, newly formed
Left on Artemis’ threshold
Raised with the knowledge
In the summer of her third year
She must journey to a place
Beyond her imagining
Artemis, Wild Woman, warns
Of the myriad dangers:
Ice wraiths with hypothermic
Breath spread madness
Treacherously thin ice floes
Carrying everything far out to sea
Sloughing glaciers sending
Animals to watery graves
But the worst fate
To be enchanted by
The siren call of Hearth Fires
Pernicious creatures, specious promises
Desire demons that consume the soul
Paralyzing monsters that trap
An eternity of wasting away
As Polaris grows she learns
Of the fantastical menagerie
Artic animals of special powers
Sagacious and far traversing terns
Narwhal that know the secrets of death
Their songs, talismans against the end
Caribou that resonate harmony
Trickster foxes with capacious minds
Around the home fires
She begins to understand her human form
Its drives and intellections
Streams and sanctuaries of creative flow
She prepares a fitting place and learns
The 1000 sacred names of snow
How to be invisible in her bear cloak
White on white, moving like the wind
Across this icy land
She explores, tests her strength
Contemplates being, leans into life
Scrying colored lights in the dark
Feeling the warmth of midnight sun
Pulse of life deep within calling her forth
She awaits the catalyst, transformation
That will initiate her quest
Her journey to the source
Novaya Zemlya
And so she waits breathing
Beauty into the world
Sings new songs of awakening
Her streams becoming rivers
Roaring across her inner landscape
As the Kara flows through
Baydaratskaya Bay to feed the sea
In the Spring of her third year
Prowling the northern borders
She arrives at Novaya Zemlya
Ice-scoured fjords, narrow inlets,
Guarded by skerries
Upon the wind is a melody
Like none heard before
Lured closer she learns too late
Of the infestation of Hearth Fires!
Their radioactive contamination
Lairs in nuclear submarine reactors
Half-life remnants of the Cold War
Becquerel bravado still feeding evil
Melodies turn to piercing cries
Polluting her sanctuary of creativity
Poisoned, weakened, she seeks counsel
Artemis, now contaminated cannot aid her
Sends her to speak with the narwhal
‘All my songs have been stolen by the wind
My mind and purpose are clouded
This hunger for art is now insatiable
Artemis is also sickened, please help us’
The keeper of death’s secrets
Intones into Polaris to discern
A cure, ‘This pollution is a fire
Malevolent psychic complex
Devouring your spirit,
Only the aurora borealis
Can heal your wounds
You must now journey to a place
Beyond your imagining’
Midnight Sun
‘How will I make it
Carrying this burden of disease
Though these vast wilds?’
‘You must learn to trust
Overcome your fear and begin
I will give you this iolite amulet
When the time comes you will
Know its purpose, now go’
So Polaris, invisible in her bear cloak
Walks along the path that
Will take her to the edge of
Everything she has known
The nights become like days
She remembers little of life before
Forgets why she is searching
Loses her sense of direction
Beleaguered and exhausted
She digs a den beneath the snow pack
Taking off her bear cloak
Visions of her inner life return
There were sacred names
Hands that made things
A riverbed; was there a river?
Her voice croaks a broken song
She burrows deeper
Ice wraiths gather seeing
That she does not wear her fur
Stalk and whisper frosty exhalations:
‘Sleep, sleep little one
Stay, tell us your troubles little one’
Polaris closes her eyes dreaming
Of the song the Hearth Fires sang:
‘Come rest here by the fire
You are so very cold,
This will warm you from the inside’
She is offered a metal chalice
Peers into the cup
Blue flame dances within
‘Drink it, we will care for you’
One sip and the song’s melody
Transforms to piercing screams
‘You are in our domain
Your passion is now ours
We have marked you with our wounding
Stolen your music and laid claim to your life
All your days you will wander lost
Unable to mend your inner being
Your voice will bear our fire!’
The wraiths combine into one
Circinate being, move in for the kill
Wolves, drawn by the whispers
Snarl, growl, and destroy the wraiths
Wrap Polaris in her cloak
Curl their white furred bodies
Round her in a healing circle
(Note to reader: This is the beginning of a longer mythic work that I’ve been releasing and will continue to release in sections over the next several days as part of my NaPoWriMo commitment. Each day a new section will be added so if you’ve read some of the sections all you need to do is go to the end of the last section you’ve read to find the new addition.)
Chromapoetica 
harrowing journey Anna. it feels universal and primal. holding my breath.
Universal and primal, just what my myth/fairy tale is aiming for, thank you for letting me know it’s working so far :).
Really progressing wonderfully. In this particular one, I love how it completely resembles those myths that are based narratively, impeccably done, Anna. And these photo’s you are finding are just outstanding and mirror the tone of the pieces so very well. Thanks
Thank you, I’ve been building to this and the next section. I don’t think I’ll serialize poetry again, especially during a month where I have little time between writing, editing and posting. Normally I like to let poetry simmer and come back to pieces sometimes years later to refine them. Well, I knew NaPoWriMo would shove me out of my comfort zone, just like blogging did.
I love the stalk of the ice wraiths which actually reminds me simply of our clouded exhalations in the frost. Now, I must confess that I am someone that works on a much simpler level – writes children’s and teen books! – and wonder if you’ve ever read the Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman, much of which takes place in a beautiful evocation of North–
I haven’t read it but saw the movie when it came out. I like the connection between the ice wraiths and clouded exhalations, a great way to imagine them.
Agh! Did not see the movie but I don’t think it compared with the book which is excellent. That and The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. They actually are a trilogy based on Paradise Lost (very loosely)–a play was made in London – His Dark Materials. I think they would appeal to your sensibilities. They are really quite wonderful. k.
Thanks I will have to put them on my reading list. You may get a kick out of this but each year I create three reading lists which I type up and cross off as I go. One for art books, one for nonfiction, and another for literature. I usually finish it about halfway through the year in my enthusiasm so I’ll be needing a trilogy.
Oh dear. 😦 Poor Polaris.
Somehow I feel this is so close to how one is in life sometimes. You think you can rest, and/or it’s safe and instead it’s not really safe, it’s not really a good place and really it’s detrimental, a place or a situation that could kill your spirit.
Yes, those specious moments, they’re a recurring theme in my work. Thank you for the empathy for Polaris, it will get harder for her before it gets better.
i love the way you are bringing these characters to life… love the ending here, i was holding my breath!
That’s wonderful to hear!
wow this is a really nice progression….the demons of the cold taunting her into laying down (to die) and freeze…love the wolves coming in to save her…nice connection that…very cool anna
I always wanted to write a story where the wolves are the heroes. There’s a great Nova special called Dogs Decoded where they acknowledge the genetic heritage of dogs from grey wolves and explain the domestication process. Scientists posit that the aid of wolves/dogs in hunting/herding led to the success of civilization. I think we owe them a lot.