Illustration: Jill Kittock
The holidays bring out the lefse lover in us, and lovers of all kinds adore poetry. So to spice up your holiday spirit, here is a haiku followed by three lefse poems.
Haiku for the Holidays
By Kathleen Weflen.
Kathleen lives in St. Paul and has edited all my books.
Norwegian lefse
Dainty potato doilies
Grandma’s recipe
Making Lefse
By Doug Bengtson
Doug is a lefse maker in Wood Lake, Minnesota.
Get out potatoes, cream, and flour
We’ll make lefse by the hour
A little mixing here and there
We roll it out real thin, I swear
Find the griddle and rolling pin
Plug in the griddle, mix the recipe in
Get the table set up and ready
Make sure everything is steady
Roll out the lefse with a shout
Get the butter and brown sugar out
On the griddle make a quick flip
Take it off and have coffee to sip
Iss Called Lefse for a Purpose
By Gary Legwold
Oh Lord it iss hard to make lefse
Dat is perfect in every vay.
To roll dem so round and so tin
Ho, ho, ho, ha, ha — dat vill be the day!
To know lefse, ya sure, iss to love it
No matter how tick, tough, or dead.
And if lefse vas s’pose to be yust right
Ve’d call lefse “yust rightse” instead.
Lefse Is a Classy Lady
By Gary Legwold
From Keep On Rolling!
Lefse is a classy lady,
This we know to be true.
She was there through our uneven youth,
Smoothing, soothing, oh so sweet.
She was there when we were off to . . .
Tears and prayers and miss-yous in the pillow package of toasted flour.
She was there when we returned, cavalier and stride full.
She nodded humility at the screen door. “A little lunch, then?”
She was there when we Gave Thanks each year
Sensual, soft, stunning, dressing up the day . . . turning heads at the Christmas table.
She is there when the old ones go, closing the crackly, weighted black album,
And when the young ones come, blessing their big-eyed, breathless open book.
She is there when we slow and slump and stumble
She knows . . . She knows . . . She shrugs and smiles and says, “Keep on rolling.”
Lefse is a classy lady,
This we know to be true.