North of Norway

When you're north of Norway  
there's still more north to know  
 
There's a polar ice cap  
pooling into danger  
a north pole  
giving you the cold shoulder  
and further north  
heaven  
- for the eternal believers club -  
or Valhalla  
to sate one's inner Viking.  
 
Or perhaps there's simply the stratosphere  
the mesosphere  
the thermosphere  
and the exosphere  
and up and up and up and up  
until space  
is out of space  
and has to wait for more time.  
 
In the meantime,  
if you are north of Norway  
just barely so,  
you have midnight sun islands  
winter afternoons that strand you in the dark,  
mitigated by life-affirming auroras  
dancing pink and green  
across a sky  
that takes you beyond  
the dome of your world.  
 
When you're north of Norway,  
you're in an arctic desert.  
Polar bears roam the simple streets  
and if you live on the island of Svalbard  
halfway between northern Norway  
and the north pole  
you're not allowed to die  
because you can't be buried  
and you won't decompose.  
 
When you're north of Norway,  
nature is a fierce opponent.  
You rise to the challenge  
applauded by a thousand ancestors,  
though, granted, they didn't have a liquor or grocery store  
 
When you're north of Norway,  
you're with me in spirit  
yearning for the top of the planet  
and far beyond.