Silent Forest Sounds

Ange (she/her), Bradley University, journeyed to the arctic town of Kiruna with fellow Slow Travelers Eva and Gabby to pursue a more sustainable and mindful way of traveling. In this poem, she captures a moment in a frozen, arctic forest.

Songs and symphonies composing

Only heard in my head

Crunching ice on powdered snow

Winter fairies softly blowing

• • •

Silent forest sounds

Icicles clink and chime

Jingling keys, a reindeer sneeze

Melodies still growing

• • •

Stepping forward gingerly

Frozen river wide

Ice pops and crinkles

Heart beating, I glide

• • •

Cymbals crash

A breaking branch

Sound still slightly muffled

Breathing leaves of ivy green

Snow pants swish and shuffle

• • •

Gentle frigid breeze

Rosy cheeks match our coats

Brook burbles and babbles

Angle wings in snow

• • •

Warm juxtaposition

Light faster than sound

Red lingonberries

Snow flurry surrounds

• • •

Crystal shards of ice

Never before seen

Intricately layering the powdered snow beneath

• • •

Ice pings like pianos

Heart beats like drums

Hearing hollow rain sticks in the breeze when it hums

• • •

Emotions crescendo

Moment profound

Eyes as big as the mountains

Appreciation abound

• • •

Grateful for all things

That are big but mostly little

The sounds of the forest

Shed a tear, the wind whistles


Sometimes we struggle to ever find the words to describe a moment in time.

As Hans Christian Andersen said: when words fail, music speaks.

Hear from more students about Slow Travel in Scandinavia:

>> Slow Travel Scenes from Arctic Sweden
>> Off the Beaten Track in Sweden: DIS Slow Travel Initiative
>> Get to know the spring ’23 Stockholm Slow Travelers

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