O Northern Muses, assist my simple
Gifts in such great words
To venerate such a demi-wolf of virtue.
Balto arises in the heat of morning.
Gazing upon Nome, he sees
The lines of dogs racing up for glory.
Seeing Jenna, Balto is overwhelmed;
Steele is full of envy
And delights to see his rival dead.
Jenna, the only husky kind to Balto,
Shows her warm affection,
Along with Boris, the Cossack lecturer.
Balto travels from Nome to retrieve
The balm to cure the youth
Whom the angel of death is hovering.
Jenna arranged the shards to light
The distant path from Nome.
Balto finds the dogs and offers help.
From love of Jenna, Balto sacrifices
Himself for her and Rosie,
Jenna's companion and sprightly owner.
Steele, little caring for the children,
Still seeks his own resolves
And batters Balto almost to expiration.
Balto returns the claws and the blows,
And demonic Steele falls
And swears to slander Balto in revenge.
Two visions of the white female wolf
Open the eyes of Balto,
Weakened and spellbound by her radiance.
In a short song, they hymn their hope
And Balto returns to lead
The anxious dogs on their perilous path
Through a frail bridge and a cave
Of dangling ice daggers
For the cautious team as they persevere.
Oh Alaska, Alaska, have you beheld
Such a wolf dog in valor
And risking himself in your vast land?
No, no! Such a creature never was
Who endured these trials
And defied your pitiless elements!
The multicolored rays are strewed forth!
Steele's lies are unmasked;
Let that cruel wretch writhe in shame!
Those despising Balto now adore him
And honor is paid to him.
Death flees Rosie and the children.
Word of victory is spread to the US
And thousands meet Balto
parading with his partners in Cleveland.
O reader, if you would take delight
In this epic of truth,
You may also be among those cheering him.
Faithful Jenna swears faith to her mate
And their union is blessed
With cubs, one of them with Balto's image.
Along the sands, Balto dances joyfully
With his little children.
They huggle him and climb on his stomach.
So short is Balto's pleasant moments
With his cubs when children
Will come to take them home as playmates.
With heavy hearts, Balto and Jenna
Watch their children taken
As Aleu anxiously awaits an adoption.
Years pass and Aleu filled with grief,
Is determined to be accepted
By a human and blames her father for it.
Aleu, be silent, cruel heartless girl!
Fate is not unjust to you,
Neither does Balto wish to withhold you!
No, you will not be harsh to him
Who gave you your life.
He whom you ran away from seeks you.
In a cave illuminated with crystals,
The young one meets Muru,
A hedgehog spirit proclaiming wisdom
And chanting the praises of nature
Challenges the girl's soul
On the search that will enlighten her.
Driven by a bear, she again meets
Her father, whom she protects
By the insight the spirits gave her.
Upon a savage tribe of wild wolves
Father and daughter appear
Where both are compelled to follow
The wolves to chase the caribou
Approved by the aged Nava,
Protested by Niju, the greedy one.
As in Aleu's mind, the Ice Bridge
Mingles and Balto calls
The wolves on their path to a new home.
Nava is aged and infirm and stays
As Niju threatens him
Along with Balto and Aleu with death.
Niju seeing the frightened pack
Drifting off, he returns
To his old home, vowing to remain.
Aleu is the only one willing to go
And lead the path onward.
Reluctant, but surely Balto agrees.
Aleu, nuzzling her father one last time
Joins the distant pack,
Who now hymn a chorus of tribal oneness.
Now Balto is alone as the hawk,
Who has guided him onward,
Leads him back to Nome and his home.
That white wolf from those years back
Is his mother Aniu, coming
To bring her son comfort and support.
Whispering farewells to Aniu and Aleu,
Balto turns and sets off
While the evening sky glows above him.
The message comes: The team is lost,
The town of Nome must gaze across,
The frozen tundra waiting for,
The glow of lantern light once more.
But Balto knows the children will,
All perish soon and coffins fill,
His mind resolved, he vows to go,
And lead the sled team back to Nome.
However hopeless it may seem,
Balto tracks the dogsled team,
Leaving marks upon the trees,
To let him know where he has been.
He journeys on, across the land,
And finds the missing canine band,
They look to him, in awe, in silence,
All but Steele, intent on violence.
Balto sees he must retrieve,
The medicine ere end of eve,
Balto is set upon by Steele,
There is no way to strike a deal.
Balto struggles onward still,
Against all odds, for good or ill,
Regardless of the pain he feels,
He won't give in; he will not yield,
Steele falls, from grace, from height,
To strike the ground with righteous might,
Balto takes his place as guide,
With huskies faithful at his side.
They come across a wooded place,
And must continue with all haste,
But Steele survived, away he slunk,
A mark now stands on all the trunks.
They were astray and Balto saw,
The treachery that Steele bore,
He led them on, a bit too fast,
The cliff edge loomed, forbidding, vast.
On the sled the ropes did fray,
The antitoxin fell away,
Balto made the brilliant catch,
But, alas, the cliff collapsed.
Now once again the team is lost,
And this time they may pay the cost,
Nome's only hope lies on the floor,
Of a great ravine, they hope no more.
But hope there is, for Balto lives,
He bursts forth and one look gives,
The cliff behind, and then sinks down,
He cries from grief, he'll not reach town.
And from the blizzard, a wolf appears,
Snow white fur and black-tipped ears,
She howls to him, he turns away,
So then the wolf goes on her way.
And in his hour of greatest need,
The spirit of the wolf is freed,
He has the paws, the heart, the soul,
He has the strength to reach his goal.
He sounds the howl of lupine kin,
The great white wolf returns to him,
Standing face to face they howl,
And Balto sees his true self now.
He stands accost the great rock face,
He must ascend to leave this place,
And desperately he starts to climb,
He must arrive at Nome in time.
The huskies on the cliff top's edge,
Stared down over the lofty ledge,
On Balto struggled, even though,
The medicine he held in tow.
The wolfdog stood, enduring, bold,
The hero with ancestry old,
They raced on regardless of the storm,
Within the group, volition formed.
Across the ice, and down the valley,
The team ran on and did not dally,
Upon their heels an avalanche,
They carried on and did not blanche.
Chance took them through an ice cave great,
They saw ahead a jagged gate,
The deadly ice above, disturbed,
Begins to crack and drop to earth.
The team dashed on, while all around,
Spears of ice would fall to ground,
The exit neared, and they were spared,
By luck, by kismet, no one cared.
Upon the snow the northern lights,
Shone out to them, a welcome sight,
For miles around it could be viewed,
A beacon to the fearless crew.
They entered town, the roadsides packed,
With antitoxin still intact,
And so the young of Nome were saved,
By Balto's spirit, pure and brave.
John Pullinger
Free Verse:
His heart made of gold,
His idea is sold.
His conscience on the right track,
Balto knows what to do, and that’s to bring the medicine back.
He scopes the tundra high and low,
For his foe he wishes to find.
He finds the team and wishes to go,
But Steele is in his way, and he is not too kind.
Enduring the punishment of Steele’s every rebel,
Balto is forced into a living hell.
The team finally sees who stands for what and then they come to sense,
That one stands for ego, the other for endurance, fidelity, and intelligence.
Sled behind them and making progress,
The team continues their plight.
With a sense of duty, care, and finesse,
They run all through the night.
Arriving in Nome just in the nick of time,
The children are saved, and Steele is convicted of his crime.
Balto is declared a hero, even though part wolf and part dog,
Honored today in statue form, that shines through the New York City fog.
Cinquain: (2 syllables, 4 syllables, 6 syllables, 8 syllables, 2 syllables).
Balto.
Running to save.
The lives of needy kids.
He delivers the medicine.
Hero.
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