Dave Kiffer - Alaskan Poet, Historian, Humorist

  HOVERING (For Michael Bucove) Tonight, I stared into the fading southern sky Because they say if you time it right you can see a pilot’s soul make its final flight, But all I saw were the billowing clouds. I wasn’t surprised, you were never one To grandly arc across the sky in a giant burn As if you were marking your presence In indelible ink in the eternal jet stream. No, I always remember you hovering, Like the time we were careening Well above the Chickamin River and You suddenly stopped, to watch salmon. Or that time hovering near Quartz Hill camp When silence suddenly enveloped us And you auto-rotated in as smoothly As if you had meant to all along. Or even how lightly you could swing The massive propane tanks over our heads On the icy, narrow mountain tops Where we worked, inches from disaster. Some pilots fly like they are wrestling An unseen beast in the clouds, But you always gentled the sky Like a lover you would hold forever. And that’s what I will chose to remember, T...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 12-26-20 Second COVID outbreak hits LNG project KITIMAT - A second outbreak of COVID 19 at the LNG Canada construction site has affected 15 more employees, officials say. This outbreak is considered separate from an earlier outbreak that affected 56 employees in a different work group. THE KITIMAT NORTHERN SENTINEL Tronruds win community service award SKAGWAY - John and Jan Tronrud have been named co-winners of the 2020 Helen B. Clark Award for Skagway Community Service. The Tronruds have been involved for decades with the Elks Lodge, the Chamber of Commerce. the Skagway City Council and the First Presbyterian Church. THE SKAGWAY NEWS Missing person was new teacher HAINES - One of the two people still missing after a landslide devasted homes on Beach Road more than three weeks ago is being remembered as a life-long local woman who had finally achieved her dreams. Janae Larson. 23. had always wanted to be a tea...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 12-19-20 Hummingbirds hanging around KITIMAT - Local birders are noticing something unusual this year. Hummingbirds - which usually head south in October - are still hanging out in town, despite snow and colder weather. Officials say that occasionally the tiny birds do hang out through the holidays but that it will be very unusual if they are still around in January. THE KITIMAT NORTHERN SENTINEL Mask mandate expires WRANGELL - The borough assembly has allowed the local mask mandate to expire. The assembly had put the mandate in place in November but declined to extend it at a recent meeting after contending it had not received an additional info from the state regarding a state-wide warning in early November. THE WRANGELL SENTINEL Brewer 4th in country JUNEAU - Barnaby Brewing Co. won four medals at the recent US Open Beer Championships. The local brewery finished fourth overall in the contest which had m...

  "Ho, Ho, 2020 Ho." This is a different holiday season. Masks, social distancing. People insisting that everything is normal and then having to get a footlong Q-tip shoved up their nose. Didn't see this coming last holiday season, for sure. The other day, I was trying to think what was on my mind 12 months ago and it was hard to erase The Hallmark Channel's "A Covidian Christmas" from my thoughts. I'm sure I wasn't pondering having to stay six feet from everyone else and washing my hands obsessively with sanitizer. If I had, I would have converted my apple shares into toilet paper and paper towel futures. Didn't know I had apple "shares" 'did you?  Well, many, many, many years ago, I "invested" in Ketchikan's first "apple" orchard out the road. One of my school chums insisted that (really!) Ketchikan is a good apple growing climate and that...

  I Go To The Hills .....well, not really." A while back one of my non-Alaskan friends asked me when the last time I went camping was. Clearly, she has this i mage of all Alaskans as being "outdoorsy" types. You know, out the re everyday hunting and fishing - or selling our stories to Reality Television. Just a bunch of rugged folks "living off the land" or at the very least living off our story of i t. I guess i t does kinda define the person you are. You know the phrase. Some one looks you i n the eye and says - with all the gravitas of a Cabela's commercial - " I am an outdoors person."  Well, I like central heating. I like mattresses. I like i ndoor plumbing. I like having 783 channels on the cable, even though 782 of the m have nothing on that I want to watch. Push comes to shove, I am an " i ndoors person." But I digress. Anyway, my friend seemed surprised when I said 1984. ...

  OMEN   I am walking the dock Enjoying the calm weather The cold sun of early December The nineteen foot tide bringing the harbor Nearly to street level, but I am not worried It is flat glass or sheer ice or whatever Cliché you want to apply to a day In which there is no wind on the water   Which is a good thing because behind this tide Would mean that I would be underwater But instead I am perfectly dry in a day with no rain either But then it comes, a rogue gust to lift my ball cap First only an implication in the boat rigging A hint before the earthquake strikes.