{"id":302,"date":"2026-01-26T22:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=302"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:38:35","slug":"ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=302","title":{"rendered":"Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">I need help, he calls out.<br>I join him in the dangerous terrain.<br>Ice surrounds us; it\u2019s unclear<br>how we can improve this situation.<br><br>We\u2019re gonna need tools<br>And strength and patience<br>and a wherewithal,<br>which we muster and apply.<br><br>We start slowly, to avoid dying.<br>We chip away towards safety<br>Ahead: an infinite stretch.<br><br>Our bodies ache<br>Our tools buckle<br>Our optimism flags<br>Our task feels impossible.<br><br>Bystanders question our actions<br>but we are where we need to be.<br>We have to keep going, he says.<br>So we keep going, onward.<br><br>Our feat feels futile as <br>every action we make<br>has ice closing back in on us.<br>No, our progress is not linear.<br><br>Still, we persevere.<br>It\u2019s so cold out here but<br>the doing is worth doing.<br>We hack, heave, hoist, and hurtle ice.<br><br>He calls it.<br>We lay down our spades.<br>Driveway now clear of snow;<br>our minds still ripple with headlines.<br><br>Transformation takes time \u2014 <br>and our long path forward is both<br>always needed and never ending.<br><br>So inside we go <br>to remove damp gloves<br>unlace lug sole boots and clamor<br>to raise steamy mugs of chocolate.<br><br>The fight to keep this world free<br>and functional will never stop, <br>but for the moment we will<br>celebrate this one small win.<br><br><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIce,\u201d a vignette on progress and purpose, poem 026 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[17,15,13,16,18,14],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-chocolate","tag-hard-tasks","tag-ice","tag-progress","tag-recent-events","tag-snow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}