The discovery of the Endurance earlier this month is a prophetic message for us all. Even as the vessel itself was prophetically named Endurance because of what Shackleton’s legendary expedition would entail, so we too are on a journey that requires endurance, skill, and courage. In meditating on a few articles I read on The Epoch Times, I found my heart stirred to write. Couple that with watching the 2019 film version of Pilgrim’s Progress this weekend, and you have some of the core influences that spoke into the composition of this poem. Though finding endurance may often seem impossible when the conditions of life batter so mercilessly against us, the fact that Endurance remains so intact, so beautifully preserved beneath the waters of the Weddell Sea one hundred years after the ship was lost speaks to the power of endurance, especially for those intrepid explorers who see a distant country.
Finding Endurance
Vincent H. Anastasi - 2022 Three thousand meters in the deep, Endurance proudly rests beneath Antarctic frozen sheets preserved and finely dressed. One hundred years the sea has kept its secret well-concealed; upright, intact, it sails no more the Weddell's frigid field. Unshackled from the pack ice grip, the wooden wreck set free now rises from the inky depths and finds new life in me. Unwelcoming and hostile seas surround me on all sides but though the task may seem too great, the spirit still abides. Shackleton still lies interred upon South Georgia Island, but I cast off to sail instead under a greater captain. Intrepid still, He comes to save those shipwrecked souls adrift 'til in due time, His faithful crew receives the promised gift: those who endure until the end will cross from sea to sea and find their place upon the shores where death can never reach.
the deepening ground 