Manuscripts written at the end of his life,
on an island in the glacial sea,
with scratching goose-quill in bilious ink,
lists of two hundred and eleven
different plants, tales of white ravens,
unknown cormorants and sea-cows,
gathered into the dust
of an endless inventory,
his zoological masterpiece
De Bestiis Marinis,
travel chart for hunters,
blueprint for the counting of pelts—
no, not steep enough
was the north.