ICE & LAND

The minute you step on its soil, you submit to this land

The land of volcanoes and lava fields

To the past I see the mighty Vikings arriving, prospecting their futures

From the East I watch the clouds floating lively,

To the West I see vast waters, no longer ice

Full of sea creatures and life, abundance

Come trek with me during a white night

Your eyes will remain glued open with beauty

You will desire nothing but the chance to run your hands

Through the smoke rising out of the hot grounds

As if they are the underground trolls whispering,

Come and lay in our waters, heal your soul

Your past will come undone, by a simple bath

Join the rest of the nomads, the worker bees of the underground

Forever you will know this stream,

Your mind hosting the images, your body will code the muscles with the warmth

And twitches and utter elation of submerging into nature’s most powerful of giants

You experienced in one night, in a life

I can’t relay this feeling clearer, I’d be screaming

Not even the crystal ball of the witches

Can show you this beauty in all its glory

For this land I reckon is heaven on earth and beyond

With its treeless landscape, green and black rugged rock peaks

Silver streams and blue eyes souls

Come all, come none

This place will not ask for a visit, by if you do chance a voyage

Its hold on you will not steer,           

This is mighty clear

So I say to the people of Ice and Land, Land and Ice

Hot waters and beautiful valleys

Guard this treasure, for it’s guarded you for 12 centuries

To the southeast glaciers adorn your boarders

It is they that encapsulate you

Water aged thousands of years, isn’t water the only endless spirit that

Embodies it all at once?

The puffin birds in clouds guard you to the northwest

And the sea lions form a coastal guard

You usher it day-to-day life

When in my eyes, you move in a dream,

Unnoticed by generations

May the dreams deem endless

The land of ice I prepare an ode to you,

Your infinite quietude will ring in my ears for years to come

I open my arms in hopes you’ll appear again and

Once more I stand between a dream and realness

To you I surrender, never forgetting the clinching of the ice and land spell

Beauty and grace, etched in my heart.

July 2011, to the lands of Iceland and its people.

©Lucie Teichmann