Farming Dreams (PB)

In “Farming Dreams,” Sørensen, who’s in his late 80s, has constructed a cycle of free verse and prose poems that examine the decline of small family farms in Denmark, and with it a loss of cultural heritage and independent spirit. Farming villages become bedroom communities for people who work elsewhere, and agribusiness firms become the main tenants of the land. Knud Sørensen’s poems investigate and lament the end of the Danish farmer’s way of life, brilliantly capturing its intertwined beauty and sadness. These poems have a universality that speaks to the disappearance of the family farm, not just in Denmark but in America and across the globe. Translated by Michael Goldman.