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