Andrew Goldsworthy's Touching North, 1989

Arrive anywhere from Norway 

or take an icebreaker.

Or fly.

Look for a circle that has no entry or exit,

and lives inside and outside,

a logic all its own

which is one definition of love.

This won’t last for nothing lasts.

We are touching north but always facing sun.

What does it represent? Our stubbornness.

One person taught me.

I have a frozen adherence to the belief

something might happen, 

something might happen

even though I came without tools,

and I made everything up

melting as I went like a child’s distant song.

About the poet

Merridawn Duckler is a writer and visual artist, author of Interstate (dancing girl press), Idiom (Harbor Review), Misspent Youth (rinky dink press) and Arrangement (Southernmost Books). Winner of the Beullah Rose poetry prize from Smartish Pace; the Elizabeth Sloan Tyler Memorial Award from Woven Tale Press, judged by Ann Beattie; and the Drama prize from Arts & Letters at Georgia College & State University. Work in Best Small Fictions 2025. She’s a member of Blackfish Gallery, an artist-owned cooperative in Portland and curated the first land art show in Oregon. Writing, projects, works at www.merridawnduckler.com