Christine Schultz

CONTACT:
Email: christine@cschultzwrite.com
P.O. Box 176
Burlington, WI 53105

BIO:
Christine Schultz received a B.A. in journalism from UW-Madison and has attended numerous writers’ conferences and creative writing workshops through the university’s continuing ed program. She’s enjoyed studying poetry through local writers’ groups, finding that the art translates into her works of nonfiction and short fiction.

Schultz is a member of the Kenosha Writer’s Guild, the Wisconsin Writers Association, and a graduate of Jane Hamilton’s intensive fiction workshop. For over twenty years, Schultz has ghost written for experts, successfully promoting products and brands for large and small companies. You can find her at https://cschultzwrite.com

Poetry

Knud Christensen Lønstrup

The North Sea washed away the docks

and our livelihood.

Could the violent storm of 1877 happen again?

A sponsor in the New World gave merit to board a vessel.  

Comfort from mother and father

left behind on eroding dunes.

So long to dark westerly winds

carving futures from the Skagerrak coast.

Three Christensens arrived at Ellis Island

and entered opportunity

with a new name preserving our hamlet.

Three Lønstrups trained for new professions

and this Dane became fond of dairy and a tall Norwegian.

We settled inland from an expansive Great Lake

reminiscent of Scandinavian shore.

Jenny and I created a comfortable home

atop our little store.

Of sorrow we knew much

with the deaths of Shirley and Harold

but Donald and Arnold grew strong

as Jenny and I weakened.

My long weathered face couldn’t hide the shifting sands of time

that sank my Jutland family.

Graves slid into saltwater beneath the broken båds I grew sea legs on.

I no longer ponder the scattering of skeletons

in the cunning aqua marine

below the sinking shadow

of the Rubjerg Knude lighthouse.

Jenny and I are safe

beneath the black soil

close to our creamery that kept

Yorkville fat.