Inspired, loosely, by Beowulf (for example, the water road in this poem is based on the whale road of Beowulf).
1. “Hwæt”rhymes with “cat.” It may mean “Listen.” The first line of Beowulf may mean “Listen! We have heard of the might of the kings” or it may mean “How we have heard of the might of the kings.”
2. The castle is Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River of New York State. It was built by a rich man in the 19th century.
3. When I say my family’s history has been associated with water, I’m thinking about how one part of my mother’s family was part of a group that settled Nantucket Island and worked as whalers, and another part of her family was part of a group that settled Long Island and worked as ship captains.
Hwæt! Once upon a time there was a frozen castle on a frozen river,
And mountains frozen in time rose up on either side.
Through that frozen river, ice cutters paved a water road,
Breaking up large chunks of ice and churning them until they were frozen gravel.
This was my world, and my parents', and their parents'.
Through my family's history, their world had been water, frozen each year in winter.
This was my history, too, and my life, and my world, until I took a journey
to a waterless spot, where nothing freezes, but only melts.
I've moved my family to a rocky, dry, and sunswept place
to take root here, far from its ancestral home.
How we have heard of the might of ice kings
from the North and from the Northern seas,
Unknown here but for whispers
of an Ice Age.
1. “Hwæt”rhymes with “cat.” It may mean “Listen.” The first line of Beowulf may mean “Listen! We have heard of the might of the kings” or it may mean “How we have heard of the might of the kings.”
2. The castle is Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River of New York State. It was built by a rich man in the 19th century.
3. When I say my family’s history has been associated with water, I’m thinking about how one part of my mother’s family was part of a group that settled Nantucket Island and worked as whalers, and another part of her family was part of a group that settled Long Island and worked as ship captains.
Hwæt! Once upon a time there was a frozen castle on a frozen river,
And mountains frozen in time rose up on either side.
Through that frozen river, ice cutters paved a water road,
Breaking up large chunks of ice and churning them until they were frozen gravel.
This was my world, and my parents', and their parents'.
Through my family's history, their world had been water, frozen each year in winter.
This was my history, too, and my life, and my world, until I took a journey
to a waterless spot, where nothing freezes, but only melts.
I've moved my family to a rocky, dry, and sunswept place
to take root here, far from its ancestral home.
How we have heard of the might of ice kings
from the North and from the Northern seas,
Unknown here but for whispers
of an Ice Age.