Poems inspired by our Spitsbergen Cruise

Marie Hitchcock travelled on our 'Spitsbergen - Realm of the Polar Bear' holiday and submitted this entry to our writing competition.

Polar Bear, Norway

Svalbard

Land at the edge of the world

Bound by ice and snow

Released from cold's fingers temporarily

To show its splendours over the short summer months.

Land of the midnight sun

Ruled by the ice bear, the king of the Arctic

His majestic presence is bestowed on the lucky few

Before he disappears once again into the icy waste.

Land of silence, broken only by the call of birds,

A vast, awe inspiring land

Which cannot fail to touch the heart

And forever change all who visit it.

The Ice Sea

Our ship navigates a sea of ice which spans every horizon

To us it is a life raft in an inhospitable world.

It fractures the ice before us and in its wake

Trail kittiwakes looking for rich pickings from the ocean,

A polar bear roams this false land of ice:

On silent feet it approaches and then retreats

Paying us only the briefest of notice.

We, and our ship, sojourn here but for a moment

Before leaving the frozen world behind

Where silence will reign once more.