Love Poem: Traveling To Yuliya
Brian Johnston Avatar
Written by: Brian Johnston

Traveling To Yuliya

What a delight to realize, 
While on my way to Leningrad, 
You've given me my first 'White Night' -
A day stretched out before my eyes, 
A night that won't exist for me, 
As 'out of time' as love can be.

The clouds that stretch out without end
Are dusty white and indistinct, 
Yet textured like a spongy fleece, 
Like water ruffled by the wind
And frozen then, retains a view, 
Abruptly shorn of azure hue.

Much like a child the haloed sun
Ingenuously tries to hide
Though brightly dressed against the cold.
Invisible but just for fun, 
From cloud to cloud he's pleased to roam
While playing in a park near home.

With sudden shock I understand
What must have once been truly clouds
Are now pink fields of snow below, 
Illusion fading as new land -
Dark sculpted, rocky slopes suffice
To shape the glacial flows of ice.

The stagnant sun prisms its light
Piercing a million floating shards
And cold coagulated clumps, 
As frozen rivers end their flight
And spend themselves, collapse, give way, 
Into the depths of Hudson Bay.