No Better Place

by Diana Woodcock

. . . Then mock at Death and Time with glances / And wavering arms and wandering dances. ~ William Butler Yeats

No better place to which the aging,

nearing their end, should come,

throwing caution to the bitter

katabatic winds, mocking Death

and Time as Yeats instructed, with

wandering dances, taking wobbling

chances on the ice. No better slice

of paradise, no better place to trace

the sacredness of all things—

volcanoes with their hearths of

sacred fire, glaciers calving, chicks

fledging on ice-free shores and

mountain cliffs. No better place

than where surrounded by the grace

of snow and ice to release the spirit

(soul) into a higher consciousness.

In this geographical location,

the old one comes face to face

with metaphysical questions.

Cradled in the vast arms of

Antarctica, the old one nearing

the end escapes the cramped

empty space of civilization,

and comes to the realization

that politics and wars and all

the economic uncertainties are

mere trivialities. No better place

even perhaps in winter with its

perpetual night, although the icy

desolation may prove too much

to bear (depression of the long night

causing one to feel the weight of life).

The old one, tossed up on the shore

of a luminous continent, finds herself

content to sit still and observe how all

the creatures—from penguins to

whales busy feeding on krill—seem

to want for nothing. And it will dawn

on her, nearing her end, that so

it is for her at last, as well.

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Diana Woodcock has authored seven poetry collections, most recently Reverent Flora ~ The Arabian Desert’s Botanical Bounty (Shanti Arts, 2025), Heaven Underfoot (2022 Codhill Press Poetry Award), Holy Sparks (2020 Paraclete Press Poetry Award finalist), and Facing Aridity (2020 Prism Prize for Climate Literature finalist). A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she received the 2011 Vernice Quebodeaux Poetry Prize for Women for her debut collection, Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders. Currently teaching at VCUarts Qatar, she holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, where she researched poetry's role in the search for an environmental ethic.