“Sylvan” for April 19, 2019

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Sylvan
      for James Peter Danielsen
  
 I have it now,
 my great-grandfather’s axe.
 Once upon a time,
 he was a woodcutter
 in the Old Country.
  
 Still a young man, he came 
 to Oneida County
 to swing his axe
 as a lumberjack
 in the Northwoods.
  
 When I knew him, 
 in the Paper Valley
 of the Fox River, 
 he was retired from the mills.
 He had silver hair,
  
 well-cut suits, 
 a gentle smile,
 His Danish vowels flowed
 musically like a spring
 brook over smooth stones.
  
 We called him Grandpa Jim.
 He married Mae late,
 she with blue eyes as cold
 as the Danish sea, a tongue
 sharp as a switchblade.
  
 I don’t have his blood,
 or his slender, elegant bones.
 Just this axe, and its echo
 ringing to fell green trees, and
our shared reverence for paper.
  
 Leslie Schultz
James Peter Danielson Easter 1955 (April 23) Flanked by Step-grandsons: Richard Charles Schultz (left) and David Schultz (right)

4 thoughts on ““Sylvan” for April 19, 2019”

  1. Coming from a fiction writer, this means a lot. And guess what? We will be using the axe this year, as we have a new fire bowl in the back garden, and a cord of wood from a friend!

  2. WOW this is cool, Leslie! It’s a poem with a lifetime of story contained within its few short lines. Well done! The power of an object to create a whole mystique about a person. Love it.

  3. It is always good to hear your thoughts, Myrna. I agree about the evocative power of objects. They so often hold a wealth of poignancy and story.

  4. This poem really touched me, Leslie. I like how a concrete object can connect us to our ancestors and be a window, of sorts, to the past. Thanks for sharing it (and for writing it, of course!)
    I am impressed with your poem a day journey for National Poetry Month! Brava for taking on such a challenge.

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