e a m harris

Found poetry and huskies

Recently I attended a meeting at the British Antarctic Survey building in Cambridge. Outside the main entrance is a memorial to the dogs that worked for the Survey from 1945 to 1993.

For me the list of names is found poetry. I can imagine them being recited with the sounds of barking dogs and hissing antarctic winds in the background.

The names are so evocative: Hairybreeks and Hobbits are friendly, but would I want to meet Terrors or Gangsters? I’d love to shake paws with a dog called Moomin, even though I don’t know what his name means.

There’s quite a bit of poetry about huskies on the web. One called My Husky Team about a race to the Pole has a ballad-like start and an amusing ending.

I met a man who mushed
with Peary to the Pole.
Said I, ‘In all that land so hushed
what most inspired your soul?’

Another that I like is on a site called Dogster. It starts with a statement of the achievement of the Siberian huskies.

You conquered the toughest country
Ever created on earth.
Where you led, man followed your footsteps,
And the North was given birth.

I don’t have the names of either of these poets, but I admire their work and their praise, amusing and serious, for the husky.