Danish Northwest

"Danish Northwest" by Peter Graarup Westergaard was a very interesting poetry collection. The collection was described as "hygge poems from the outskirts." Hygge being a word and lifestyle of the Danish that I have researched, learned about, and am currently trying to incorporate more and more in my own day to day, I was excited to read Westergaard's collection.

The poetry was translated from a Danish dialect called, "thybomål." The poetry was meant to demonstrate the "hygge" lifestyle in the northwestern region of Jutland called Thy. The poetry touches on themes of God, countrylife, globalism, immigration and other modern concerns. I found some of the poems to be universally important and thought-provoking. Others didn't "land" with me.

Overall, they were an interesting perspective from a distant land very different than my own. I enjoyed the unique voice.

Danish Northwest is an interesting poetry collection that depicts hygge as practiced in the countryside of Denmark. Originally written and published in Danish and later translated into English, the poems are centred in the northwestern region of Jutland called Thy. It is divided into three sections: Past, Present, and Future.

The poems offer insight into growing up and living in Thy and they are infused with humor. The first section reflects the narrator’s bucolic lifestyle on his father’s farm in Øster Skaarup in Thy.

In “My Father’s Farm”, we learn about the narrator’s father, whose land (all thirty-nine hectares) yields little to nothing, despite his father tilling the land until he grew frail. The narrator talks about their neighbor, Hans Fisker, a heavily tattooed and bald fellow who wishes for “pig-tails like Pippi Longstocking”. He observes the milkman (The Troldborg Man) who drives all over collecting milk and has a penchant for eavesdropping.

“Mad Cows at the Christmas Party” tells the story of the farm animals having a Christmas Party in the stables of Øster Skaarup. The animals got carried away in all the frenzy that they didn’t notice a stereo had fallen and started a fire. The animals tried to put out the fire—picture cows spraying milk on the flames.

“Ode to the Vilsund Market” takes you on a walk through this whimsical market, where you can find “Arab thoroughbreds that can gallop a new KIA Picanto, Spanish chickens which lay three eggs twice daily and viviparous American rabbits.

Danish Northwest is inspired by English Literature and Irish poetry and is heavily influenced by Danish folk culture. This poetry explores some notable themes including Danish Politics, religion, gender issues and immigration.

Many thanks to Peter Graarup Westergaard, NetGalley, and Matador for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful collection that's poignant, enigmatic and relatable. A doorway to the author's soul is written on these pages. Highly recommended.

Danish Northwest is a fine collection of poems that feature language, place, and people. Literary and beautiful work I would recommend for lovers of verse.

Felt the translation was excellent. Danish Northwest has a very rural flavour throughout the collection which does cover a number of themes.

Elegant and heartfelt.

Liked it a lot.

With thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

Enjoyed the poetry. It is fairly quick because it does not have a lot of poems but the length of some of the poems is long. but it does have some sorter ones to balance it out. A nice collection.

This was a very interesting group of hygge Danish poetry. I really enjoyed reading these poems interesting toreadpoetrybfrom s different country culture..#netgalley#troubadorbooks

A fascinating collection. The poems are precise, observant, insightful. Upon completing the book, I have looked into Danish rural life in the outskirts as keenly as if I had visited. No, more keenly, because Westergaard introduces us to a cast of characters that otherwise I would have known only superficially. Here I find people full of personality and quirkiness set in a landscape eternal as farming, but as stoical as the Danes themselves. Yet there is humor here, too, found often in the final turn of the poem.

The book is organized into three sections: past, present, and future. Luckily for the reader, the past is the largest and the most descriptive. The present and future are also lovely, but in a more introspective way. One of these, "Refugee from the Homeland," has a second section that is so gorgeous I think I should copy it out by hand and doodle around it every day, letting its compression and feeling sink into my being, so that I may heed its wisdom.

I highly recommend this book for all poetry lovers, There is much in it that I wish to revisit. I'm grateful to Netgalley and the publisher Matador, an imprint of Troubador, for the copy I read in exchange for a fair review.