The Last White Ruby: The Vanishing Polar Circles - Hardcover

This book is a poetry collection about the experiences of living and working in the polar environment. The author was an aviator for many years in the polar regions flying for the US Air Force and resupplying the US scientific research stations on a routine basis. The flying was anything but routine, and he brings those surreal landscapes and flying phenomenon to the reader through his keen sensitivity to the human condition, ever having to adapt to what the polar regions present to the polar operator. Serving the US scientific interests abroad at the poles is the sole facet of why the US Air Force, Air National Guard, US Coast Guard, and US Navy combine to churn out the successful mission year in and year out. It is fraught with danger, beauty, the unusual, and the ever-present foe of the elements. Extreme cold and wilderness combine to confront the aviator and seamen with sometimes uncompromising force. The poles are a region where nature is dominant, but it also gives scientists the earliest clues of global warming and environmental decay. The poet captures all this and more in his portrayal of the places where most of humanity will never see, nor be able to appreciate the pristine beauty (and cooling mechanism of the planet) resident at the icecaps that we are losing as a result of global warming.

Ronnie Smith grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Loyola College (B.A.) and the University of Maryland. Ron played semi-pro basketball in Europe before entering the U.S. Air Force in 1983 to fly C-130 transport aircraft. He has traveled the world as a professional aviator, bringing a spiritual dimension to his writing through this inspiration. After many years flying in the polar regions, he became the in-theater Commander of Operation DEEP FREEZE, the DoD logistics support to the U.S. Antarctic Program from 2005-2008. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times, The Wisconsin Review, and The Evansville Review, among others. He is also an installation artist and resides in St. Louis, Missouri.