A last few images from Iceland as it is now almost exactly a year since they were taken. A couple weeks ago I posted images of the Reynisdrangar sea stacks taken from the east side of the mountain Reynisfjall that runs to edge of the Atlantic. It’s a bit of a drive to get to west side. Here is that western view of what the legend says are two trolls who tried to land a ship here and froze into rocks when daylight came.
Reynisdrangar
In Snow Geese, Mary Oliver writes of her experience of once, and only once, seeing snow geese migrating overhead. She starts the poem:
Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!
What a task
to ask
of anything, or anyone,
yet it is ours,
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.
. . . .
Skaftafell glacier
. . . I
held my breath
as we do
sometimes
to stop time
when something wonderful
has touched us
. . .
Dawn on Diamond Beach at Jökulsárlón
. . . .
I have never
seen them again.
Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.
Maybe I won’t.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters
is that, when I saw them,
I saw them,
as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.
excerpts of Snow Geese, from Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver 2004
Sunrise on Diamond Beach at Jökulsárlón
I hope we see some things today. If you’d like to read the entire poem, click here.
My son Dan edited a video of these and other south Iceland locations. If you’d like to enjoy it: