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Edited by Dava Sobel
1. THE SOUTHERN LIGHTS AT –50° FAHRENHEIT

—a zeitgeber
When winds were being bearable, we sought bliss,

sat, admired the aurora australis

as an escape from our blackest abyss.
We gazed up into rarefied air, apparent
and pristine in every single echelon,

an atmospheric phenomenon,

solar wind collisions of protons
and electrons high in the exosphere.
Who wants Parthenon or Start of Venus

when blue lights swirl very low, pink coronas kiss

clouds, neon greens arc, deep reds stripe throughout

stars. We invoke therapeutic through kinesis.
2. LAKE VOSTOK

—a zeitgeber
Frantic contact despatched us to the Pole of Cold.

We maneuvered gradually, sought a controlled

method as a result of shifting drifts in our Hägglund.
At camp, they drilled to 4,000 meters
to contact a subglacial lake and wrangle

accretion ice and microbe samples,

hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of decades outdated, fragile.
After, we warmed ourselves close to place heaters.
We could be on Europa, on untold

frozen moons kind unique species unfold

the quilt of the cosmos piece blocks maintain

no bias embrace the raw edge, uncontrolled.
Author’s Observe: The rhyme scheme for this variety that I invented (dependent on the phrase “zeitgeber,” that means an exterior cue that affects the way the system is controlled by circadian rhythms or time cycles) is aaabcccbaaaa and signifies a few months with solar over the horizon, one particular thirty day period of twilight, 3 months of darkness, a single month of twilight, and 4 months of sun above the horizon.
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