Great Regulars: The speaker states that during the last

winter of her father's life, he worked tirelessly in his "drafty workshop" making "ice-grips for shoes." The speaker then explains that the ice-grips are made of "strips of inner tube and scrap metal." Parenthetically, she explains how the device is worn over the shoe to keep one from slipping on ice.

The speaker reveals that her father's health should have precluded "All that close work/In the drafty workshop." But the speaker surmises that he felt the end of his life looming: "He sensed travel at the edge of his mind."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Mary Oliver's Ice

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