Sidney Beck Poet Verse

January Sunrise

JANUARY    SUNRISE

Over frozen Neva, the slowly flowing *
Sun came up,  big, oval and orange  - glowing
Off  the  ice-bound water bright,  showing

How,  after the dark days of December’s night  -
That  warmless, brightless  hopeless  sight  -
We could feel alive and thankful in the sunlight.

An icebreaker shoved its way briskly through
The moveless  channel,  enveloping itself in a  hue
Of misty  water and ice fragments blue.

Then the river fell rigid and still again    
As we wished and sought the sun’s domain
On our chilled cheeks;  but we gazed in vain

Over the frozen Neva  -  as Franklin in distress  *
Must have  peered  endless
Through the frigid night of Boothia’s wilderness.

With the channel shimmering, misty  rainbows
Purified the air.  We took the offered dose
And thankful filled our lungs as the sun arose.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

*The River Neva is the main waterway in  St. Petersburg, Russia


*Lord  Franklin  died  in 1845 exploring the Northwest    
Passage near the Boothia Peninsula, Canada

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Andrea Dietrich January 26, 2012 at 5:36 PM The poor guy (I had never heard of him before) are you writing it from the perspective of one of his shipmates that did not die? Loved the ending verse: that dose of purified air!!!