Arrival

View from restaurant atop 'Puijon torni', the 'space needle' overlooking Kuopio, Finland.

Arrival

9/7/11

I've landed in new world

of Karelian pie, vendace, reindeer,

roe, salmon, berries, and lakes,

islands, trees seen to horizon

from restaurant atop 'Puijon torni'

on hill overlooking Kuopio, waterways,

the university, and surrounding area

as floor revolves in circumference

every hour inside round observatory,

outward slanted flat glass panels

allow commanding eagle eye view,

more so on unprotected top

being windblown beneath cloudy skies

rippling blue gray at sunset,

a low light-kissed beige band

illuminates westwardly toward Sweden, Norway,

not visible beyond Finnish landscape

dense with myriad green foliage

even on small earth dabs

amid languid liquid silver ribbons

that create miles of shoreline

known by tribes over centuries,

whose courage, ingenuity, resourceful independence,

were birthed by Nature's challenges

inspiring songs of enduring land

rarely evident upon newcomers arrival.