My Uncle's Poem

First, some background...

My Uncle Bob (my Dad's brother) is, I believe, 92 years old....soon to be 93.  He has an incredible gift for poetic endeavors.  He has also had a life-long dream of traveling to the Last Frontier.  Fostering that yearning has been his ability to memorize and recite many of Robert Service's poems.

Uncle Bob recently sent the following poem to me and I wanted to share it on my blog.  I do so with some reservation, however, because there's a "bit of history" of not copying things as he meant them to be...and we'll leave it at that....and hope for the best.  I do appreciate my uncle taking the time to create this for me.

Thank you, Uncle Bob!


"Donna's Shang-ri-la"


There's a place of God's creation
That can shape imagination
And I feel it has a subject in its clutch.
It promotes the odd sensation
Of an intimate relation
I have witnessed creativity of such.


I've a niece that's independent
A devil-may-care descendant
But the rustic beauty took her by surprise.
As she ventured way up yonder
To that land of scenic wonder
Where Aurora Borealis paints the sky.


Though as a clan we're not nomadic
Her decision was emphatic
And she let her intuition take command.
Providence stood there beside her
As she let her conscience guide her
To that place that she would christen fairyland.


Though the action seemed quite forceful
She was known to be resourceful
So we didn't wish to challenge her desire.
And she sailed off like a Viking
To that island of her liking
That is said to lie within the ring of fire.


Threat of family division
Did not dampen her decision
She possessed a strong desire to sally forth.
She declared the bit of knowledge
She had garnered while in college
She would spread extensively throughout the north.


When she set her feet in motion
To explore the Arctic ocean
She was drawn to the allure of Shishmaref.
Twas a place of rustic glamour
That was touted to enamor
It was nestled on the isle of Sarichef.


Shishmaref offered location
To a few of her vocation
So they chose to share the knowledge they'd acquired.
They disposed of their estrangement
By a mutual arrangement
An exchange of camaraderie transpired.


Need arose for the cessation
Of extensive navigation
So her sights she set on one specific spot.
Her resolve will not diminish
She'll be stalwart to the finish
She'll be there when time expires....like as not.