GLACIOLOGY

Ice acts as a womb for stories, microbes, fossils and ice worms—ice reflects our time on this planet. Therefore, whenever I hear a story about a glacier, I listen. In Southeast Alaska, our stories link us to the landscape. An elder once told me that glaciers listen, so one must talk respectful to glaciers. I move respectfully through this glacial landscape of Southeastern Alaska, as do my children. They are Tlingit; their ancestral roots began with glacial activity. Ice fields have stories to tell. That's what glaciology is—a form of listening to stories.

*This is an excerpt from "The Memory of Glaciers" published in Alaska Women Speak, Summer 2010.

To read my poems, "Glaciology" go to Catapult to Mars.

        (In photo: My grandmother Ruth Binkley)