Bjerget (The Mountain)
Nashville, TN
2025, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Chest-deep in the silent water
of the Øresund,
muscles shuddering beneath me
as my fingernails rake heat
into my forearms,
I scream into the boundless sky above me
and I am limitless.
In my hometown in Tennessee,
in the humid, heavy heat
and in the dry Southern drawls,
there are no words for this.
No words for the exhilaration, exaltation,
of my eyes burning in the night air,
of my hair, turned frigid by the wind,
plastered wet across my spine.
No words for the synthesis
of awe and insignificance
as Moder Jörð stands behind me,
her swollen ankles built from rock and mud,
bellowing a silent galdr into the distance.
But in the summers with my mormor,
when I lay a reverent hand
on the worn rock of the local dysse
and think of the people 5,000 years ago
who stacked these very stones—
when I shake the sour bits of sun-warmed rhubarb
into the little green bin filled with fruit and fruit-flies—
when I save glass bottles of elderflower juice
in the bag beside the door for a few øre—
when the ineffability of nature becomes
particularly unbearable,
I say, “Jeg bliver bjergtaget af bjerget”.
I am taken by the mountain.
Translations (Danish to English):
Øresund – the Sound, a body of water between Sweden and Denmark.
Moder Jörð – Mother Earth. Typically written as Moder Jord, but spelled in Old Norse to reflect the name of the Nordic earth goddess Jörð.
Galdr – ritualistic songs of Norse mythology, similar to a hymn or psalm.
Mormor – grandmother.
Dysse – stone burial mounds from the Neolithic period called dolmen.
Øre – the equivalent of cents in Danish currency.
Jeg bliver bjergtaget af bjerget – Literally means ‘I am mountain-taken by the mountain’. Used to convey feelings of rapture for the natural world, regardless of if the subject is a mountain. The use of a mountain as a symbol of awe derives from the very flat land of Denmark and implies exploration outside of one’s homeland.
Reflection
When I think of my place in the natural world, my mind goes to the summers spent at my grandmother’s home on the shores of Denmark. My family’s history is everywhere, from my own childhood memories of plunging into freezing waters to the 5,000 year old stone burial mound that’s just a minute’s walk into the woods. Through my poem, I aimed to express that history has kept my connection with nature alive past simple appreciation. The knowledge that my ancestors, as well as countless others, swam in these same seas and grieved over these same stones, has sharpened my gratitude into a reverence for Earth and how it continues to provide for us. To express my connection to my family’s history and culture, I played with the use of Danish words and phrases through the medium of poetry. As I delved deeper into my writing and the contest theme, I also considered how the culture of sustainability in Denmark contrasted from my own experiences and emotions living in the United States. Although perfectly ordinary to most Scandinavians, the ability to be environmentally conscious with pride and with ease is a gift that radically few people are given. What truly makes me look inward when I step out into the Copenhagen air every summer is the knowledge that we are fighting for change. That one day, the children of my children will breathe this same air and know that their predecessors did too. That one day, just maybe, my neighbors in Tennessee can have the same feeling I do when I get a few pieces of change for the glass bottle I could have never recycled back home in Nashville.