THE NEWS FROM THE CRUISE
BEGAN
on a Tuesday
Not this or last
but in the past,
with rumors from the net
about excursions, arrangements
packing and documents
AND WILL END
on Wednesday,
not this
or next
but when memory wanes
or someone says,
“Please, there’s no need
to tell it again.”
PREPARE
to wear . . .
what . . . on the sea to Alaska
–
to experience . . .
what . . . places exotica,
people reachable only by air or by
sea?
Will it be sunny all night,
full of cold ice?
They can leave you at the dock, it
was hinted,
if you misread a form
or left it at home not printed.
GETTING THERE
In Flint,
a lady with a laptop
couldn’t keep her trap shut
talking at a business man
sitting on her left
switching to a cell phone
in her right
when it wasn’t typing
tippy, tap, tippy, tippy, tippy,
tap,
Atlanta displayed
between Concourses A and T
life size airport art from
Zimbabwe
Sculptures done
in Spring and Serpentine
stone
Young man, plaid shirt,
earnest attempt at a beard.
He, attached to a cowboy hat
not nearly as attached to him.
Naked nervous moments,
de-cap-itated,
when he stumbled through
the cramped doors
of the airplane loo.
First Sightings
On the left, looking up,
the mass of Mt. Rainier displayed
while across the aisle, we looked
down
at the rest of the Cascades.
Kids limo’d, rock star style
long, black car, to Seattle
“No pictures, thank you!”
SEATTLE
Cascades to the East
Olympics to the West
Docks to the world,
Ferries to the burbs.
The inspiration
to a coffee boom somehow
missed our hotel room.
Rode the elevated to the Needle,
Monorail Ale,
and looked down at a map.
No, wait, that IS Seattle.
Lovely parks downtown
home to those without – injured,
now insulted, by those who seek
attention,
the costumed and painted
young, on parade.
Down at the lounge –
like the hotel, big city small –
I settled for a few
minutes to check for news from the
muse.
Bar tender busying, table to
table.
Hotel patrons on elevator detail
pulling luggage over tile,
clackety click, clickety clack.
No use.
An evening martini . . .
not up to the task.
Pike’s Place Market
Acres vending everything fresh
Watch the seafood fish throw
show.
Especially fresh today,
tee shirts to go.
SHIRTS FOR PERVERTS
“It’s not pretty being easy!”
Two for ten.
We escaped and lunched
Bolivian.
TO THE SHIP
Tetris driver stacked
luggage, us ten – ovation
in his taxi-van.
EMBARKING
A smooth sail through
document checks,
those things you do
to get people and stuff
on a ship for a cruise.
Anxieties allayed with each
gangplank stride,
able to focus on why we were here,
the excitement of what we would
find inside.
A week’s worth of clothes
soon disposed to the drawers
and corners of efficiency
quarters.
Time to take command –
captains of our staterooms –
on the Westerdam.
ON THE SHIP
one of those dam ships
from Holland America Line
Our Stateroom
Efficient space – for all
but elbows,
on main deck, above steerage
and the Irish
rumored below.
PROMENADE:
MIND YOUR HEAD
WATCH YOUR STEP
Take a walk
three decks up,
outside.
Pools
A retractable lid for the kids’
rock and roll pool
that swayed with the sea
more than nine decks below –
a slow sideways list, or,
when the sea was heavy,
sloshy-wavy aft to fore.
Adults in posh hot tub thrones
watching the kids encourage the
slosh
–
were seen less often, swim clad,
in the brisk Alaskan air of their
outdoor pool,
except for the day
they swam in Glacier Bay.
THREE LAPS TO A MILE
Doesn’t that couple know . .
.
DECK RUN IN PROGRESS
. . . that’s the wrong way to go?
Blasts from the horn in the fog
I hope,
out there in the mist,
you’re not near
enough to hear
this.
LOWERING STATION
KEEP CLEAR
LOW LIFE-BOAT CLEARANCE
ASSEMBLY STATION
Ours is thirteen –
women and children in front –
respond when they call your
name.
Dining options
Formal, casual
sit down, buffet
a grill by the pool,
service in the room,
coffee shops, lounges
and snacks in the bars.
Soda cards on lanyards –
their many punches
survived a week of kids’ snacks,
dinners and lunches.
Friday’s late night highlight,
a chocolate extravaganza
photo op
and finger food frenzy.
Buffet
Asian,
Mexican,
On and on,
Italian, Deli,
Bistro, Desserts,
drinks and pastries,
all known food groups, and
a new one invented just for today.
Dining Room
We sat and “selected’
from a menu
– not “Either-Or,” but “Why Not
More?”
every dessert, multiple
appetizers, and a couple of soups.
Then tried all entrees not seen
before
and maybe not again.
With Dutch coffee, Java smooth,
we ended, Indonesian.
The multi-menu’d kids
tried Alaskan king crab and
gazpacho
with their fries and
cheeseburgers.
On formal nights we dressed
better
but maintained our old eating
behavior.
On the day of the baked Alaska
bakers parade
we saluted the chefs
and the culinary magic they made.
Crows’s Nest
Glass enclosed
full frontal viewing area.
Pilot your own ship and check
the library’s coffee shop –
to your left
or the lounge and piano bar on the
right.
Journaled from 10 decks over
the Pacific O –
Seattle to Juneau
and back.
DESIGNATED AREA FOR PANAMA CANAL
PILOTS
Why not?
A ship with a life!
Ship Mates
The young or beautiful, it seems,
cruise other seas or other times.
We did wear beautiful clothes –
maybe not beautifully
but with effect.
Logo’d tees advertised
our clan, the race we were running
on deck
or where we were from
– and, of course –
our sizes.
Even our canes, walkers and
wheelchairs
we sported with pizzazz.
BLANKETS FOR DECK CHAIRS
employ a man
to bring them out
and put them back.
Shopping
Learn to vacation the American
way.
Our seminars prepare
smart shoppers for duty free sales
and Alaskan gem shopping
excursions.
Let us teach you about tanzanite
expose you to topaz
or upgrade your diamond
then unveil Alaskan jade
at our Northern Lights Collection.
If you’re game, take the lessons
on how to use our casino
or enjoy champagne, get in on the
action
while learning the art of collecting
art;
then join our end of cruise
auction.
If you’re going ashore take our
seminar for
how to shop in port.
Get coupons and precious gem
certificates the shops will mount
for a fee.
For the kids, free
furry pins or
plastic rings – they change colors.
You will find
available everywhere
grizzly paw salad tongs
Ulu knives, fleece,
smoked salmon
and furs.
HELP US KEEP THE OCEAN CLEAN
DO NOT THROW THINGS OVERBOARD
The wake frames
low sun over high mountains.
Everywhere on your promenade,
viewing snow capped mountains
and listening to others’
conversations.
ASEA
Daytime temp, 50 degrees
10:20 sunset
four o’clock sunrise.
GLACIER BAY
First Sightings
Water spray,
small wisps, spout.
Milling fins stir
water textures.
A fin, a fluke, out,
down and away.
With luck, pods.
Bears, only two seen
Brown, hard to see,
yellow, browsing,
over the hill,
gone.
Black, moving
along the shore
among the greens.
Ice chunks
float past,
increase,
hitch-hiked by puppy seals,
sense water is better
and slip over the side;
details missed by seagulls
but not by two berg-surfing
eagles.
Glaciers
16 at tidewater
100 alpine
The Great Pacific, covered in
black, receded
too balanced to move.
We watched Margarie,
groan and crack its way
between mountains
five feet a day
then send blue chunks splashing,
with mini sonic booms,
into the bay.
How well equipped are you
to wait
and watch plate tectonics
move?
Juneau
Behind the docks, mountain walls,
narrow Juneau,
no roads in or out.
They shovel snow, inches
measured in hundreds
courtesy
of the Japanese current sea.
Couponed shoppers, their first
opportune,
rush to mine gold
bargains at Juneau’s jewelers,
see the capital sights
and the Red Dog Saloon.
We headed to the woods to a musher
camp
eager for immersion in the lore
of sled dog breeds,
their care and developmental
needs,
the time it takes to build a team
and more.
We knew the original Iditarod
story
and Balto’s glory
but not Togo’s work
or what it takes to qualify,
winning sprint and mid-length
races
as well as the sponsors needed to
pay
to race today.
A sled dog ride, six to a cart,
gee-hawing through hemlock trails
led by Iditarod mushers
who signed our caps
then taught us to socialize dogs
– by letting us pet their pups.
Sitka
Good news, folks,
the lifeboats worked,
tendering us in to the world’s
largest city –
thousands of square miles,
a volcano, mild climate,
Russian souvenirs and legacy.
A walk in the park with totem
poles led
to a place doing raptor repair,
a small Russian church –
walls of icons, a sailcloth
ceiling
and red Bishop’s chair.
The kids wondered if the eagle on
the cross
was a bird of pray.
Ketchikans
complain about the rain and
collect
totem poles, eagles
tourists, summer merchants
and salmon in fishing boats with
nets,
We learned, touring on a duck,
quack, quack, quack
between a bunch of corny jokes
QUACK, QUACK, QUACK
that they live – on docks –
a lifestyle blasted from rocks
and meet their exercise needs
by climbing steep wooden
“streets.”
Victoria
Most went to see Canada’s jeweled
city of castles
with flowers in parks and hanging
in baskets
while I stayed
to watch a mock
pirate battle regatta
in the bay.
Dennis R. Keefe
August 23, 2008
