Arctic Circle Peace Poetry from Year of The Poet (Vol 65)
Featured in The Year of the Poet May, 2019 Volume 65.
The Northern Most Eight
Eight with land within an Arctic Circle
if we start with the most Russia
where peace is reflected “mir” “мир”
then clockwise Finland Sweden Norway
where peace is experienced as “r̃auha” “fred” and again “fred”
The people of a small island of Grimsey
find Icelandic peace in “friður”
and in the Danish spoken in Greenland “fred” again
then a long Canadian arc through the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut
a short hop through the Alaskan United States
and back into Russia
Do we even notice everywhere
there are circumpolar peoples
a linguistic and cultural umbrella
protecting hiding covering
various indigenous peoples of the Arctic
communities who each think of peace in a different way
“irqigsiniq” in Kalaallisut or Greenlandic
“haimmahi” the West Inuktitut of Canada
“lalʸlɨ wəlupsɨ” in Khanty or Ostyak in Northern Russia
whatever the word each of us seeking peace
Rivers and Languages
There are three great Siberian rivers
flowing into the Arctic Ocean
the largest is the Yenisei
the Ket people who live along her shores
say peace “unaat” or in Cyrillic letters “унаат”
Write “унаат” in a single line
tracing the curves of the “Y” jumping next to the “Н”
“A” “A” followed by “T”
like a long river winding her way into the Arctic
languages and peoples elegantly dancing
show scientists our connections
to each other and our nature
The Ket language spoken by a small group of forest hunters
in the Yenisei River area of Russian central Siberia
are related to North America’s Tlingit
Eyak and Athabaskan speaking people
we are all connected
Cedar Peace and Calm
The Siberian cedar
a stone pine “Larix decidua”
sacred tree of Tubalars
a symbol of the power
beauty and courage
an old man tree represents
a sage in fairy tales
among these northern people of Russia
who call peace by the name “tegin”
simple and peaceful
from the Altay “tegin” meaning for no reason
ordinary and just
like peace should be everywhere
freeing us to eat the cedar nuts full of protein
and calm inducing tryptophan
Originally published in The Year of The Poet (Vol 65) at http://www.innerchildpress.com/the-year-of-the-poet.php on May 1, 2019.
