—After the photograph by Ole C. Salomonsen [*]

Above the Arctic Circle, 
winter nights go on for days. 

Even the glow of twilight 
freezes on the horizon. 

Some nights, your only guide 
is that promise of morning. 

But then, a sudden green 
cracks the night wide open. 

Ribbons of green sway and sweep, 
blazes of green slant and sleet. 

Green steals the air you breathe, 
and you kneel in wonder. 

The ice echoes that cold fire. 
Green dances all around you, 

Green opens cracks in the ice. 
Green shimmers to show you 

how far it is to morning. 

*Publisher’s Note:

Ole C. Salomonsen is a landscape photographer based in Tromsø, northern Norway. Cracks on Ice is among Rosin’s favorite photographs of the Aurora Borealis; in fact, he has the print in his office. We’re sorry to report that Salomonsen did not respond to requests to reproduce his photograph here. But you can experience the spectacular image on the homepage of his website:

Arctic Light Photo

And here’s the direct link to the photograph in Salomonsen’s gallery of personal favorites: https://arcticlightphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/My-personal-favorites/G00006edrcySftFA/

Gary S. Rosin’s

poetry and haiga have appeared, or are forthcoming, in various literary and poetry magazines and anthologies, including Concho River Review, Harbinger Asylum, KYSO Flash, Lifting the Sky: Southwestern Haiku & Haiga, Poetry24, Texas Poetry Calendar, Untameable City: Poems on the Nature of Houston (Mutabilis Press), The Legal Studies Forum, Visions International, and elsewhere. His poem “Viewing the Dead” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Two of his ekphrastic poems appear in Silent Waters, photographs by George Digalakis (Athens, 2017).

He is the author of two chapbooks, Standing Inside the Web (Bear House Publishing, 1990) and Fire and Shadows (Legal Studies Forum, 2008) (offprint). Selections of Gary’s poetry and photography can be found on his website, 4P Creations: http://4pcreations.com