It’s amazing that this is the 6th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest. Each year, more and more limericks are entered, and the quality is top drawer.
As it turns out, the Lefse Limerick Contest launches my lefse season. The off-season starts right after Christmas, and I welcome the break. This year the break has been different, which is why the theme for the 6th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest is Lefse and Hope.
The essentials of the contest:
- Email your limericks about Lefse and Hope to glegwold@lutefisk.com by March 31, 2026.
- First place winner gets the maple-walnut rolling pin shown above.
- Second place winner gets the Keep on Rolling! hat, which captures the essence of life and lefse.
- Third place winner gets the Let’s Make Lefse! Jigsaw Puzzle, which offers hours of family fun.
I am thankful that hope is universal and is inseparable from strength. Here in Minneapolis, where I live, strength has surfaced as neighbors and churches and don’t-rock-the-boat groups that you would least expect to rise up were making signs and taking to the streets—in sub-zero temperatures—because they could not believe they were witnessing and experiencing cruelty, including to their children at school, and terrifying events. Recently, changes and hope have followed. However these changes play out, I am hopeful and proud to call Minneapolis my home. There is no other place I would rather live.
Back to the lefse limerick contest. In short, I could use some limericks, which are powerful and amazingly versatile poems that provide both levity as well as poignancy, sometimes in the same limerick. Because of this, the limerick is the perfect instrument to express hope.
In writing lefse limericks for the contest, the hope can be for something personal and close.
Concern for my lefse abounds, With high hopes for a perfect round. It's tender and thin!!! Now THAT makes me grin ... The best comfort food to be found.
The hope may be for something more global.
Oh, winter is cold and it’s gray, But roll out the lefse, hooray! With butter — a treat, It’s contentment to eat, And better things come, come what may.
Ah, yes, I feel better already in coming up with these lefse limericks about Lefse and Hope!
Now, it’s your turn. Again, the theme for the 6th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest is Lefse and Hope. Get cracking! Write a mess of limericks (you just can’t write one, right?) that are about Lefse and Hope and then send them my way. The 6th Annual Lefse Limerick Contest runs through the end of March, 2026. That means you have one month to craft and polish oodles and oodles of limericks about Lefse and Hope.
You can search online for help on how to write limericks. They are a hoot to write, especially once you understand their simple structure. Two things to remember:
- Make sure you have seven to nine beats in the first, second, and fifth lines, with the last word in those lines rhyming.
- Have five to seven beats in the third and fourth lines, with the last word in those lines having a different rhyme than the last word in the first, second, and fifth lines.
You will rise quickly in the ranks if your limericks about Lefse and Hope adhere to these rules, or you’re pretty close 🤓. Email your limericks to glegwold@lutefisk.com by March 31, 2026.