John Haines, former Alaska poet laureate, passed away earlier this week in Fairbanks, at the age of 86. He published four books with Wesleyan: Winter News, The Stone Harp, Cicada, and News from the Glacier: Selected Poems, 1960-1980. This is one of our favorite Haines poems:

INTO THE GLACIER

With the green lamp of the spirit
of sleeping water
taking us by the hand . . .

Deeper and deeper,
a luminous blackness opening
like the wings of a raven—

as though a heavy wind
were rising through all the houses
we ever lived in—

the cold rushing in,
our blankets flying away
into the darkness,
and we, naked and alone,
awakening forever . . .

from Winter News