Traveling Gladly Beyond #1

In 2025, on a trip to Antarctica with my friend Faye, we polar plunged. It’s astonishing how similar my avatar (to the right), designed by Nanso Cleaver many years ago, presaged this photo. I’m calling this Series, “Gladly Beyond” from a line in an e.e. cummings poem “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond.” Gladly Beyond! There is so much to this world. Let’s Leap!

I believe it was when I saw this photo, that the two words “gladly beyond” from e.e. cummings’ love poem “somewhere i have travelled, gladly beyond,” that the penny dropped. Presence and Going Gladly Beyond comprise my spiritual practice. Writing, whether in essay or verse or occasionally song, is my expression of that practice.

Last February (2025), thanks to my friend Faye Wilson, I traveled gladly beyond to Antarctica. We were a bit worried a bit about whether or not two women in or about to be in their 70s were fit enough to go off on an expedition. However, going Gladly beyond was what we’d signed up to do; we’d bought the tickets, we were going on the ride!

However much you prepare, you can have no idea what you’re likely to encounter on the trip. We were traveling to a land that is vast and unknowable. It took a very long time to get there. Almost 24 hours of traveling by car and plane. Then three days on a ship over rough waters to get to the Antarctic current. That alone set the trip apart.

Then, just as soon as we came out of the Drake Straight (pretty much the Drake Quake, but it could have been worse), we had tea with the whole ship up on the 7^th Deck. We were all carrying our parkas because we had just been given them. Suddenly, the PA system announced whales ahead. We all dashed to the bow of the boat, and sure enough, Whales! They weren’t the super deluxe model, they were simply the deluxe: three fin whales, the world’s 2^nd biggest whale. The guides walked among the guests and told us about them and the penguins we were seeing this far out to sea. Suddenly there was a gasp from the guides, and then they were standing on the engine cover four feet above us, with huge telephoto lenses, furiously clicking. I think we saw three, but I’m not sure. I know we saw one. I know our captain had never seen one or our tour leader. I know that they told me that whale could be up to 110 feet long and weigh 30,000 pounds. It was magic.

The next day I saw penguins, seals, and a myriad of birds. I sat in one of those black rubber zodiac boats stopped to watch some humpbacks and some seals. We were close to the coast of the islands. Looking down into emerald green water I understood that I was in a place of Peace. I joked with my trip leader that this trip was sort of a bust — what??? He asked. I said, “welp, I’ve seen everything that was on my list and we’re still on the north side of the Archipelago!” We laughed. Things only got better. Deeper.

After that encounter with Peace, I promised myself that I would do nothing I was bad at on this trip. I take lousy photos, people were taking thousands, I had no need to take any. I would, I decided, record my trip in poems. Those poems led to my first poetry book: Off to Antarctica — My Pilgrimage to Peace. (You can find it here). I’d never felt the need to gather my poems into a book. Antarctica demanded that I respect her worth. Here you are, Madame, I think of you often! I would love you to purchase one, read it, and tell me what you think!

As my friend Duane Griffin, an early participant in compiling programs and guidelines for cruisers in boats small enough to land their passengers in Antarctica said:

“By February 6, 1775, Captain James Cook decided he’d sailed around the southern hemisphere’s high latitudes long and well enough to declare that the region had been ‘sufficiently explored and a final end put to the searching after a southern continent.’ Not because the land didn’t exist there — he was convinced it did — but because he was sure that the miserable weather, ice-filled waters, and the ‘inexpressibly horrid aspect of the country’ mean that even if it could be reached, it would never be worth the effort.

“Exactly 250 years later, to the day, Ann Keeler Evans and her dearest friend, Faye Wilson, boards a plane in Philadelphia, bound for Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world, where they boarded a small, luxurious cruise ship and sailed to the continent Cook dismissed. She’s distilled that experience into 54 poems that recount and reflect on her travels, her people, peace, our more-than human kin and one of the most remarkable parts of our only planet.”

If you’re local, on Sunday 12/7/25 at 9:30 am I will be reading from my book at the Priestley Chapel in Northumberland. It’s a 45-minute program which I’m sharing with local singer/songwriter Paul Loomis.

We’d both love to see you. And Antarctica would love to have me read to you and explain why it was ‘gladly beyond’ my wildest expectations. There are so many places I would now love to travel to record in my words why this incredible Earth is worthy of every trip we take gladly beyond our viewpoints.

Salaam, Shalom, Peace, and Blessed Be!
See you soon! Meanwhile, I’ll be off leaping into Peace!