ROUNDING THIRD

There might have been time
what kept the light from reaching you
to find other moorage
but you reverted home
           I walk to the
                         Hjemkomst
           in Moorhead Minnesota, have happened to turn
           sixty-three, it is awned for good here, modern
                         Viking dragon ship
           that he wrighted to sail to
                         Oslo
                         Trondheim
                         Faeroe
                         Iceland
                         Duluth
           home to home to home, from
                         dream to reality to memories
           he had written, would make it but not alive, get
                         hjemsøkt av sykdom
           through building launch and trial, not
                         hjemmefra
           only
                         hjem
he’s home they will chant
the pious that have watched you die
now we won’t have to take
him to a home amen
                         hjemkomst
           a return home, an arrival there, here, Minnesota North
           Dakota would have to be the
                         hjemland
           or was it all Norway dream, the park is here
           in my hometowns on a kind of moorhead with
           wide lawn much green still in it a drop to
           naked river wood the working Red itself, yon
           bank Fargo that got me launched and tried,
           sixty-three
                         skipet hører hjemme her
           one would think, nary grandparent of mine ever
           sang
                         ja vi elsker dette landet
           or dreamed back though I enjoy the language,
           notion of a Norway, the permanent
                         båtskur
           is roofed with what one might take to be stretched
           tarp but a fiberglass part of hard-made museum, a
           friend of mine had gone to socalled  Hawley Shipyard
           a potato dugout
                         it may sink like an oaken chiffonier
           he thought, no the
                         Hjemkomst
           ran well when wright now
                         skipper
                         los
           tried her at Duluth who would not make it alive,
           the dream ship would a one-way harrow to Bergen and
           Oslo with his children at oarage the summer my
           Norwegian dad went
                         hjem
           have I reverted home to die, am a man of the road
wherever you have
gone it has been to die and the
carver put a hint
of smile in dragon head
           the wright was a man of family
                         hjemmevant
           in midamerica, grew him a heritage beard yet would
           not have dreamt on the
                         hjemkomst
           to lay in Norway, retake it as one true home,
           might have only wanted to go, be off the homestead
           out of the roadstead awhile at home in the
           turbulent seaway the tang of it, turn
                         hjémover
           at the end to a
                         hjemkomst
           in native potato midland but had to harry the waves
           in a dream, no voyage, that went direct to memory
           while out of New York the longship took a crack in
           the hull, moaned on to carry that dream from home
           port home would not sail home, they shipped her, to
           lie in moorhead awning museum dry dock, the
                         Hopperstad stavkirke
           her company now
no Christian would go
to the stick church in Jump City
you see at gable tip
the line of the dragon
           or be
                         hjemlig
           with
                         Hjemkomst
           either, the blow of raw pagan sea in her oak, I
           walk around the museum not into it, my legs that
           worked on road and mountain have carried me
           back to the homefelt smell of aging prairie autumn,
           the ship
                         har ingen steder hjemme
           and home neither here nor there is now
it might have been light
that kept the time from reaching you
and you reverted home
to find other moorage

Glossary:

Hjemkomst :    name of ship

he :   shipwright Robert Asp (1923–80)

hjemsøkt av sykdom :   afflicted with illness

hjemmefra :    (away) from home

hjem :   home (noun, adverb)

hjemland :   homeland

moorhead :   highest part of a moor

skipet hører hjemme her :    the ship belongs here

ja vi elsker dette landet :    yes, we love this country (Norwegian anthem, first line) 

båtskur :    boat shed

Hawley Shipyard :    where ship was built in Minnesota

skipper :    shipmaster

los :    pilot

hjemmevant :   domesticated

hjémover :   homeward

Hopperstad stavkirke :   Hopperstad stave church, replicated next to museum

Jump City :    Hopperstad, Vik, Norway

hjemlig :    comfortable

har ingen steder hjemme :    is neither here or there

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