And now for our prompt, which takes us from 2015 back to the 1700s. After all, it’s the eighteenth of April, which means that today is the 240th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere! Today, in keeping with the theme of rush and warning, I challenge you to write a poem that involves an urgent journey and an important message. It could be historical, mythical, entirely fictional, or memoir-ical.

I had to think long and hard about an urgent journey and an important message – eventually I chose to go to the southern hemisphere in 1916.

Endurance 1916

the small boat that twists
through mountains and deep valleys
of restless, green waves

holds six men whose hands
grip weathered wood, their faces
pale, furrowed, salt washed

after sixteen days
black, sharp peaks of South Georgia
and one final push

to reach lights of hope,
rescue for those who remain
stranded on ice floes

far from battle fields
of France, this small miracle
where all men survive