Cordova Ice Worm Cocktail At Your Service

   Taking a break, albeit a short one from rhyming on the idiocies of D.C. and our politically correct world to rhyme about some favorite topics, Alaska and Robert Service, my patron saint of poetry and my Rosetta Stone at 3 1/2 to learn how to read at Sandy Beach in Petersburg, Alaska. The week of February 3-9, the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska holds its Ice Worm Festival, almost non stop activities of fun, games, tournaments, including my favorite cribbage--may just have to go there one time as have been playing before kindergarten and thoroughly enjoy it-and the to be expected jump into the frigid waters of Orca Inlet (seal costumes not allowed for obvious reasons). Ice worms do exist in glacial ice and are one of the few animals other that sled dogs memorialized by Robert Service in his poem, highly recommended--"The Ice Worm Cocktail". Alaska and Robert Service with a bonus of cribbage thrown in  meant in no uncertain terms that I had to comment in rhyme--Hope you enjoy! 
Cordova Ice Worm Cocktail At Your Service 

Even poet commentators get gnawed down by the D.C. political rancor grind

So hard to keep up with spin, deception and insanity that blows one’s mind

After watching news of fireworks and marching dragons celebrating Tet

I thought readers might enjoy another colorful marching set

Maybe it’s the isolation or maybe it’s the long nights in freezing ice and snow

If you want something off the beaten path, it is to Cordova where you must go

People forget the a monopoly on Alaska the English and Russians did not possess,

The Spanish with navigation and daring sailing to impress

Braved Southeastern Alaska’s storms, tides, rocks and all manner of weather duress

To Cordova Inlet a Spanish admiral's name to caress

To explore and name ports in Prince William Sound

Made famous for the Exxon Valdez running aground

Valdez and Cordova bear the legacy of the Spanish flag

And when it comes to off the charts but sane excitement Cordovians do not lag

Many perhaps as a hangover cure on New Year’s morn
Run into the ocean from whence millions of years ago their distant, distant ancestors were born
In California the waters may be a "refreshing" 50 or so with 70’s in the air
Stopping one’s heart on the first day of the year not a bucket list to share
In Seward named after the Seward with the buying purse
On Polar Bear Jump Off those Alaskans have no New Year's Day hangover curse
Water almost cold enough to turn to ice the waters of Resurrection Bay
Air cold enough for snow and sleet and prayers after jumping to see another day
In Cordova it is the Festival of the Ice Worm instead of the Dragons of Tet
Long papered multilegged costumes dancing in images one would not forget
Ice worms surprisingly in glaciers in Alaska actually do exist
Commend Robert Service “The Ice Worm Cocktail” as a poem hard to resist
Blue is the color of glacial ice pure, not one’s political lean
Otherwise in this Red State, like in  Haines hungry American eagles would be seen
Like their neighbors in Seward, the frigid waters near ice to jump and swim in await
What is surprising is that so many, daring heart stoppage, take the bait
But before you write off these Cordovians as examples of insanity completely confirmed
They jump and swim, but in Survival Suits by crabbers worn during this Festival of the Ice Worm

© February 12, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet