Thankfulness
The house your Dad built
We're building out at Hollingen
She said and
I was impressed
Not yet used to the semantic broadening
Oh, I thought your husband was in sales
Did he grow up on a farm?
I was transferring my culture
From the Manitoba prairies to our new context
Here in the west coast of Norway
All the farm kids back home were handy.
No … um… we’re not building it ourselves?!
Oh, I said, the truth slowly dawning.
No, no, we're paying a company. No, we’re not actually
Building it ourselves, of course.
She laughed. I didn't.
Guess I was still fighting with my own insecurities
City kid from a farm town,
Living as we were
In the house your Dad built.
Norway is the most beautiful country
In the world
Your Dad stopped his digging
Wiping the sweat from his brow.
I was thinking …
Well … the world’ s a pretty big place but
I managed to hold my tongue for once.
And Molde is Norway’s most beautiful town, he continued.
He stopped and looked over the fjord
And the beautiful panoramic view
I was fighting the foreigner’s impulse
To provincialize the parochial pater
And this … he stamped his spade
into the moist earth …
Is Molde’s most beautiful yard.
It was a grand slam a
Hat trick, the full Monty and I
Held my tongue, for once,
A stranger and pilgrim in this paradise.
They called her Dagmar, 2011 –
I’d never encountered such a storm
That night the whole house shook
And the roof and windows rattled.
I lay awake and felt the power of nature
Measure itself against your Father’s craft.
I was nearly certain then, that this time
She would prevail.
All night the west wind raged
Til I drifted off at last into a restless sleep.
I awoke the next morning to the sound of the lark and the robin
And the sun shining on the clear blue fjord
Thankful for this life here with you
In the house that your Dad built.
THE STALLION
Though, he was working at the livery,
he would always be a cowboy at heart.
He longed to once again own a horse of
his own.
And his mind was totally blown
the day a young man named Bart
brought two horses into the livery.
“I'll be in town for a month or so
and I'll make you a deal.
I'm a gambler by trade, and only need
one horse, but I won this steed
he's a fine horse, but I don't feel
he's right for my need, you know?”
“I'll trade him to you in exchange
for taking care of the mare
while I'm in town. Our friend
quickly agreed, but then
to wth his boss, trying to be fair
to pay the gamblers bill himself, did
arrange.
Thus, he did acquire a spirited horse
who turned out to be the fastest animal
in town.
Oh, how he prized that stallion.
He named the animal “Scallion.”
He was happy to have found
a way to buy his own horse.
That night, when he knelt to pray
he Thanked God for blessing him.
He knew that this deal could only
have come from God, you see.
He did not know of the upcoming need
young Jim
would have, or in meeting it, the part
the horse would play.