Skagway Study
after Wisława Szymborska
Of 100 who left Seattle for Skagway in 1898
40 made it to the gold fields
8 found gold.
Of 100 who found gold in the Yukon
58 never got rich
29 made fortunes and lost them.
Of 100 who came to Skagway in 1898
9 were women
8 survived the year.
Of 100 businesses started in Skagway in 1898
32 were honest
3 lasted ten years.
Of 100 men who came to Skagway
14 were brave on arrival
80 evolved.
Of 100 women who came to Skagway
98 lost their corsets
85 lost their skirts.
Of 100 men in Skagway in 1898
97 condemned prostitution
97 knew prostitutes intimately.
Of 100 people in Skagway next July 4
84 will be tourists
9 will serve the tourists
6 will be children.
Of 100 people who come to Skagway
95 move on.
Nearly all of those who stay decide
To want what they have found.
Publishing Information
- This poem draws on information found in the library of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Skagway, Alaska.
Art Information
- "Broadway, Skagway, Alaska, May 20, 1898" photographed by Eric A. Hegg © Library University Washington; public domain.
JoAnne Growney has loved poetry since girlhood. While a mathematics professor at Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg University, she brought the arts, particularly poetry, into her classroom—and that sort of integrative activity continues in her blog “Intersections—Poetry with Mathematics.”
Growney’s poetry collections include Red Has No Reason (Plain View Press, 2010) and My Dance Is Mathematics (Paper Kite Press, 2001). In her current hometown of Silver Spring, Maryland, she teaches an ongoing poetry workshop for mental health clients.
Details of her articles and her collaborative projects with artists and translators may be found at JoAnne Growney’s website.
