We just returned from a grand tour of Alaska on a cruise. One of the most impressive wonders of the great north was the Hubbard Glacier. This is a photo I took from our Viking cruise ship. We witnessed the glacier “calving” and this poem is about how this great structure and its activity felt to one little human.
Glacial
viewing that glacier
as the ship rocks –
ephemeral humans –
is to understand
great insignificance
buoyed by joy;
the calving carries on,
ice chunks cleaving
into the sea;
seconds later,
thunderous sounds
accompanied by
squeals of glee
Brian J. Zink August 2026 Copyright rules apply
BJZ Poems and Musings 
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