She wrote in 1948

Recently, a fellow West Denmark community member found a printed letter in his Mother's belongings and had it translated from Danish to English.  

In that letter was quoted a poem written by my Dad's Mother, Frederikke.  The letter was written in 1948 and I have included the paragraph that the author of the letter used to introduce Grandmother's verse.  

I wanted to share it here as it inspires me appreciate nature the way she did.

Mrs. Johansen has never seen Denmark and her Danish is the language she got from the pioneers and the casual teaching in high school.

Never the less she owns a rhythm and tune in her soul which we Danes up here admire.

I repeat the poem in its full length:

West Denmark is forest and hills

Towards the shallow lake

Sweet woodruff, Blue Bells and Lily of the Valley

Bloom in thousands.

A light breeze between the trees

And the day comes to an end

A Whippoorwill sings its evening song

In the peaceful summer eve

And the frogs quarks in the moor

Cowbells sound in the forest.

And the moon throws its shining

Over the lake that glitters like silver

Nature is like a organ's play

That sounds and lures and laughs

There a boat glides out from the bank

Into the stripe of silver

Where song sounds and heart beats

And word comes from chair

And where we depressed people sit

A glimpse of the shining sun

Where source of life springs to comfort the soul

And people find their harbor

There lies West Denmark.

Gods peace to all who builds and lives

In the forest by the lake

The sound of song from a joyful choir in West Denmark from forest and from home

Can never be wiped out

As long we keep pouring of the well

The well that runs from God.

This way the hard working farmer wife sings and writes poetry in 1948.

West Denmark Lutheran Church - 2013
Photo & Waterlogue edit by Mark Petersen