Winter Worship

Studying and imagining the past often helps keep my own life in perspective. In that spirit, since many are experiencing frigid weather, I share this poem:

Winter Worship

They arrived in November and found
no preachers in the settlement
of crabbed cabins, towering oaks, prairie.
Time dragged, full of cracked lips, frozen toes,
brittle sunshine, looming shadows.
Logs groaned, ice fractured, men cursed.
children burrowed hollow and dull beneath quilts.

Cora paid her tithes at the woodpile,
perched on a board in the snow,
ax clothed in mittened, frost-bit hands.
Chop and haul, chop and haul, bless
the warming muscles, curse the freezing sweat.
Then into the cabin to worship
at the cast iron altar, source of life yet
insatiable, glowing red as brimstone.

This selection is from my collection Balancing: Poems of the Female Immigrant Experience in the Upper Midwest, 1830-1930 (Little Creek Press, 2021).

(Top images courtesy Pixabay)

First, Second, Fortieth

I’m excited to announce my first book of poetry, my second release of 2021 (with one more to come), and my fortieth book! 

If you’ve enjoyed the Chloe Ellefson Mysteries or my non-fiction A Settler’s Year: Pioneer Life Through The Seasons, I think you’ll like this collection as well. Here’s the scoop: 

The poems in Balancing were inspired by the experiences of women who, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, sought new homes in the Upper Midwest. Few women recorded their struggles and satisfactions, but by juxtaposing research and imagination, Kathleen Ernst breathes new life into their forgotten stories.

Balancing will be released on July 1st by Little Creek Press.

Please join me for the virtual launch party!

The party begins at 7 PM Thursday, July 1st, 2021. My beloved local independent bookstore, Mystery To Me, will host. Attendance is free but pre-registration is required.

I’ll share a few of the poems, and the stories that inspired them. Celebrated poet Andrea Potos will have some questions for me as well. 

I will be happy to sign and personalize copies of Balancing pre-ordered through Mystery To Me.

I’ve been reading immigrant diaries, letters, and reminiscences for forty years. These poems were inspired by details and moments that touched my heart.

I hope they touch yours as well.