Anchorage: Joan Kane

Posted At : February 13, 2009 1:00 AM
Related Categories: Poetry,Alaska

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This poem, "Anchorage" by Joan Kane, appeared in the Northwest Review, published by the University of Oregon.

Written and read by Joan Kane: "The poem describes the infinite landscape of Alaska’s long winter season." Joan is an Inupiaq Eskimo with family from King Island and Mary's Igloo. She holds degrees from Harvard College and Columbia University. Check out Joan's writing Web site.

"Anchorage"

"How rapidly the tide turned, turns.
Still, turning now, gray wash and silt
Pivots on a finger of foam.

One could count time in its long
Trough, or lose it altogether:

Winter may thicken the air
Earlier than expected. Or,

An inflection in the shadow
Of the long crest is an increment,
And a small variation.

With it, we are joined, and continue.
A sharp-shinned hawk now wheels

Overhead, as each spring tends,
And shows its white underbelly."