Magical Places and Marvelous Creatures

Sometimes a postcard message is as much inspired by the image on the postcard as a message to another person. I sent this postcard and message below some time in April of 2009 from my home in Fairbanks, Alaska, to Suyhou City, P.R. China. Jinlin was the user name (no longer used) of a postcarder acquaintance met through Postcrossing, an online international postcard exchange project. At 150 words, this was a relatively long message for the reverse half-side of this 4 by 6 inch postcard. A typical postcard message In English runs less than 100 words. I had to use my fountain pen with a fine nib to squeeze all the words in. I consider my message to Jinlin an ekphrasis -- a fancy Greek word that means art inspired by art, typically poems (in this case a prose-poem) based on a work of visual art.  

Sandhill Crane in flight. Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge,

Fairbanks, Alaska. Photo by Ted Swem. Alaska Bird Observatory:

 www.alaskabird.org.

To Jinlin in Suzhou,
Suyhou City must be incredible. How lucky for us who live in magical places. I imagine floating the canals, wandering the expansive gardens, strolling past the new museum, pondering how much blood and sweat civilization requires to flower. I hope you enjoy this Sandhill Crane postcard. After the long, bleak and bitter cold days of winter, our heads tilt and ears open as flowers for the sun hungry for spring light. These magnificent birds, with their sweeping wing span and prehistoric call --- more a guttural crank ---, ride on lofty winds, some, all the way from Mexico. They give us pause to ponder what is elemental, what is winged, what is astonishing, what is simultaneously primitive and modern yet natural and supernatural in every creature.
I pray many blessings for you and your young son, Kris

Cold to the Bone

We're in a cold snap here. The weather turned cold the past week and there isn't any end in sight yet. On Wednesday, November 16, records fell: 54 below zero Fahrenheit at Manly Hot Springs, 41 below in Fairbanks International Airport.

This post card is my favorite local cold weather image. There are lots of these hearty souls walking the streets of Fairbanks this time of year dressed up like spaceman. This particular individuals face mask sort of looks like a blue pig snout or maybe a Yetti. It's a great picture illustrative of the ice fog and extremes of dress Fairbankians use to keep warm.

I remember the first Thanksgiving my wife and I spent in Healy, Alaska. We woke up and the temp was pegged at 49 below and the propane wouldn't flow. We ended up taking the turkey we were supposed to cook to our friends house to cook it there. They kept their propane tank propped up against the house and wrapped in a thermal blanket. The heat coming off the house was enough to keep the propane liquid and flowing. I know this is a perverse wish but I kind of wish that it would have been 50 below that year just so I can say some day, "I remember the day it was 50 below on Thanksgiving morning..." I guess I'll have to settle for saying, "I remember the day it was 49 below in the 49th state."