I fully expected to love this book - rural setting, conciseness influenced by far Eastern poetry, political and religious awareness. All the poems are well written - but neither images, word usage or emotion stick in the reader's memory. Yes, there are a few exceptions: "You (the earth)were hungry / like us / for seed" in "the earth" or from "the old teacher": "that's how he wanted to help us ' construct the world: / solid everyday life/ and occasional expeditions / inward to the borders of mystery." But there are few enough exceptions for me to recommend this book only to those with a specific interest in Scandanavian or Norwegian poetry.