Kategori: Poems in english

We are the Elves – a Christmas poem

… so it is Christmas and once again I wrote a poem. This time about the Elves…


We are the Elves

We are time, jumping and laughing
Just behind the corners in your house

Around here we are dressed in red
Opening gifts, farting in your slippers

If you had a piano, we would play it
For now, we just run in your blood

We deliver hope on a global scale
Remember that, when it is too late

Yes, we demand this one more time
Eat candy and change yourself

We are comedians, hopelessly in love
Tears and jokes in the same dream

Beauty and brilliance in your body
It is there, just put on your red coat

...og er det på dansk...

Vi er nisserne

Vi er tiden, hoppende og leende
Lige bag hjørnerne i dit hus

Her omkring er vi klædt i rødt
Vi åbner gaver og prutter i dine sko

Hvis du havde et klaver, ville vi spille på det
Lige nu, løber vi i dit blod

Vi leverer håb på en global skala
Husk det, når det er for sent

Ja, vi kræver dette en gang til
Spis slik og lav om på dig selv

Vi er komikere, håbløst forelskede
Tårer og jokes i den samme drøm

Skønhed og styrke findes i din krop
Bare tag din røde frakke på

14. december 2025

Doctor of Philosophy


My son defended his PhD Thesis just a few days ago at Department of Culture, Cognition and Computation, Aarhus University. Above you see the front page of the Thesis and here below a poem I wrote and read to him.  It is of course a personal text from a proud father, but also a text about being in transition as a new researcher. In that sense a snapshot of a situation, more people than he has been in.  If you are curious about the front page, just write him and ask him. Enjoy the poem.


Doctor of Philosophy

On this troubled, blue, lonely planet
We need minds, that dare think far enough

You know, where the answers whisper
In the back of your head, insisting on being true

The world is still a colorful playground
But we need caring hands in every corner

That is where you come in, my young padawan 
As the new breed of scientists, the newborn researcher

The brain isolated in a dark empty space
Needs art to move and poetry to make sense

Someone must show the connections
Between dots and dance, culture and change

It seems to be you, that has the task
Of running the machines and thoughts of the future

It seems to be you, with trembling hands
Who must start a lab of love, a new yellow submarine

You jump from city to city, talking in networks
Surfing our globe, your feet skating in the air

Next touchdown is ready, next challenge is close
Placed in the mountains, in your open mind, go for it

It happened a long time ago, that you raced past me
Telling your own stories of life and risk

But I am always close, not more than a word away
If you need a walk or a talk or a look at the sky

We salute you, warrior of the unknown
Enter your new title and forget about the brakes

24. november 2025

Time is a trickster – spoken words at a garden party

Here we are, Wes Shumar and I performing a poem in english about life and time and change. I wrote the text but Wes commented and suggested. I read the words and Wes let the guitar gently whisper to a dear friend of ours. She said yes to me publishing the poem here on my webpage. Enjoy!


TIME IS A TRICKSTER

Age is a number, life is to be ready for the next challenge
Feeling alive in the sun, among friends, playing once again
Grandchildren and grand thoughts intertwining

A guitar whispers about the twilight between love and loss
A woman enters the stage and shows herself once again
Watch her hands slowly open and close ready for the next fight

You are a ballet dancer, when it comes to crossing a river
It seems to be part of your tough and yet sensitive spine
Earned though a lifetime of being and becoming

You leave the old map and the directions noted there
The new map is ready to be drawn and done by yourself
Nothing matters more than your next decision

Time is a trickster, suddenly days turn into years
A house turns into a home, words turn into a language
But you turn into what you always were, a strong woman

29. juni 2025

The Transformers – a poem on digital media, children and pedagogy

This is a poem on how children and technology can be framed and understood in a pedagogical setting like a kindergarten, a pre-school or a afterschool club. The essence here is to give the children and the staff the possibility to become transformers. What that might be, you can read below.

it is in English, as I was writing it at the BIN-norden conference i Stockholm in May 25. The conference was about among other things about childrens culture in a pedagogical setting. Enjoy.

And just to mention it: The second line in the poem is actually part of the first line. This software just cant show such loooong lines of text – in one line.


The transformers

You can think children as narrators, explorers, searchers & decision makers
It is nothing new, it is part of everyday life in a kindergarten

Give them the possibility to experiment and find their own use
For digital media, technologies and narratives

Ask fundamental questions together with the children
Be a We, a group of human beings

What do we want to tell?
What do we want to know more about and be able to?
Who do we want to talk to and where?

And of course, who do we not want to talk to 
And where do we not want to be
 
What do we want to use this technology for?
Because we can change any use together to another use
Our playground is an open laboratory

We are the ones who can transform anything through play
We are the ones who can leave any technology any time

We are the ones, who are the center of the world
It is what we do together that matters
We are the ones who travel online to meet the unknown

We are always body, community and play
We can mix robots, tablets, sand and space

Images can become shaped clay that can become new play
Play can become shaped clay that can become new images
Just use AI, a camera and a circular, playful proces

We are an experimenting community that never finishes
One must just start thinking and acting like that

If you want to know more about BIN Norden, you have got several options: BIN-Norden and BIN Norden – børnekultur i Norden

14. maj 2025

Our Playground – Reading at BIN Norden in Stockholm

There I was on the 08.05.25 standing in front of all the participants at the BIN-Norden conference in Stockholm reading this poem celebrating us as educators, researchers and practitioners in the field of children´s culture. It is in English as the conference language were in English. The drawing is mine and has to do with being global as well as Nordic. You get the poem both as a reading and in writing. Enjoy!


Our Playground

We know a lot in this vibrating everlasting space
About being in deep processes with children
Playing together in a modest everyday present

We are the experts in looking at and joining in
At the very same time inside this phenomenon play
Working and walking through a playful pedagogy

Here we are suggesting ways to become humans
Using tools and materials to understand and live life
Doing experiments to be a gentle part of a wounded world

Maybe we are the ones, who know the most on culture
On art unfolded in processes, on digital technologies
As a vivid part of the analogue and the global

At least we dare to be in the unknown and still untold
Breaking boundaries and creating new expressions
Making ourselves and children capable of agency

This is a community of researchers and practitioners
Basing our results on action and ongoing reflection
We hold our ground in the playground and talk about it

Be aware, we have just started a long journey
It might be us, who can change the future of this planet
Being sensitive to ourselves, to all and our connections 

A toast for the Nordic approach, a toast for children
A toast for Bin Norden, a conference to discuss and act
A toast for our capacity to play and play again