Kristine Amundrud – Acreage Song

Time and loss isn’t ever too far off in Kristine Amundrud’s “Acreage Song”, but neither is life and resiliency. Wander with the narrator of this poem in the the wintry cold of a rural farmstead, festooned as it is with examples of what has come and gone. But see also what still thrives, enduring. “‘Acreage Song’ is an ode to a family farm, the people who have passed (bedstefar-Danish grandfather), and winter seasons in life,” Kristine told The Dewdrop, continuing, “I wrestle with grief: themes such as loss of a parent, and bitterness due to estrangement. In the end, I find slivers of healing in a cheery chickadee, a mythical Nordic creature (nisseman) and bright moss thriving in cold.”

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Acreage Song

Early December and I amble
along my gravel laneway,
ending at the corner.
I am drawn to admire a cluster–
crystal feathers of hoar, clinging
precariously
to every branch, leaf,
———-spruce needle
——————–blade of grass
and memory–

for life is short.

Came to a timeworn fencepost–
where broken family lines and longing
intersect, leaning sharply
into the echo of a loved one
———-gone.

Slack barbed wire keens
adjacent to untended pasture.
Tangled grass screams
through generations of long prairie winters,
———-wind, and wrongdoing.
Nearby, a creek, parched throat
———-squalls lamentations.
What will safely graze, if ever,
in this meadow of melancholy and mire?

The chickadees have no care.
They flit and frolic, and I covet
such blithe whimsy.
Curious wings awaken
the bearded nisseman,
hidden atop a venerable post
disguised in blistered wood grains.
Wearing a hat of velvet, emerald
whiskers whisper secrets of
dreams left dormant.
I abide,
pondering the paradox of green life
thriving through winter.

And the wooden stake,
driven into hard ground
sings bedstefar’s acreage song–

it plays host to
unwonted beauty,
bears witness to
the resiliency of
my weathered heart.

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Read On: Related Posts

• William Stafford’s Looking Across the River
• Gurdjieff and The Two Rivers
• Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
• Pamela Wax – Capricorn Loses His Star
• Barry Casey – Wait Here