ICELAND POEMS: LIVING ON THE EDGE

LIVING ON THE EDGE

In Iceland the shore’s the place to thrive:

Warmed by the North Atlantic Drift,

Your crops and you will stay alive,

Safe from the glaciers on your roof,

Those peaks robed in eternal snows

Whose rivers water and feed your crops

That burgeon in the summer’s light.

The shore’s the place to love and hope

And garner the bounty of the sea,

To dry the cod and ferment the shark,

Harvest birds’ eggs and minki whale meat

To see you through the winter’s dark.