Bev Tappan

Month: June 2017

  • NORWAY POEMS: A TOAST TO NORWAY

    A TOAST TO NORWAY

    Land of fjords and mighty glaciers

    Waterfalls and lonely farms

    You exceed our expectations

    You have strangely winsome charms.

    From the ice age still emerging

    Northern lights fluoresce your skies.

    Dog sleds cross your frozen valleys

    Reindeer drink from holes in ice.

    Skiers trek beside your railways

    Down the slopes and through the woods

    Hut to hut and town to town

    Snow-connected neighborhoods.

    In the summer’s ceaseless light

    Gardens burgeon, crops erupt.

    Sheep and goats and cattle graze

    Widely on your mountain tops

    Sentinel farms on fjords and highlands

    Villages with stave church steeples

    Glass-towered cities, bullet trains

                                                        Nordic blond athletic people:

    Cognizant of all your virtues

    We of southern climes salute you.

     

     

  • NORWAY POEMS: THE NORWEGIAN WAY

    THE NORWEGIAN WAY

    Norwegians seek a way of life

    With moderate ease for all

    Secure from poverty and strife,

    Painless, enjoyable.

    Tail-gating is against the law

    As is immoderate speed.

    Mishaps are few and far

    Between and trips serene.

    All buy their homes, cabins and boats.

    They ski and camp and sail.

    Norway’s the best place to grow old

    Live the good life all the way.

     

  • NORWAY POEMS: TROLL TUNNELS

                                                        NORWEGIAN TROLL TUNNELS

    You see their statues everywhere

                                                         Those weird Norwegian trolls. 

    Big-eyed, big-bellied and big-eared

    They’ve popped up from their holes.

    Perhaps that’s why on every road

    And under every hill

    So many tunnels have been bored

    With more in progress still.

    And even ships will soon descend

    Beneath the hills and sea

    To sooner reach their journey’s end

    From gales and blizzards free.

    Safety and comfort are the goals

    Norwegians most esteem.

    Convenience is why they tunnel roads

    And drive with moderate speed.

     


     

     

     

  • RIVERWOODS POEMS: BEACONS

    BEACONS

                                     (For Judith, with apologies for poetic liberties taken)

    Each night as on our bed we lay

    I saw three lights across the bay,

    Three glimmers on the darkening sea

    That seemed to call and beckon me,

    And as we settled into sleep

    They seemed a silent watch to keep.

    Now that dear cot no longer sits

    Atop the fast eroding cliff.

    Only the low rock wall and gate

    And a flagpole mark our nesting place.

    Victorian, loosely built and frail,

    It was not destined for repair.

    But still each night alone I dream

    Of three clear beams across the sea.