Want a Peek?: Welcome to My World! Poems and More...

By Kari M. Knutsen

A Norwegian granny, I write very human poems, often with a tad of humor about life, death, love, and war. Certain we humans are flawed but fabulous, many of my poems are about what we do or dont do and what we do when we dont know what to do. The poems in the first part of my book I have called Granny Kari Poems. The ones in the second part Ive called Willoughby. Those poems are in my upcoming novel Forever and Beyond. My poems, but supposedly written by William Willoughby who is a fictional protagonist not out of the common box. Awfully human as well as a paradox, he lives and dies in different centuriesmedieval times 1096, the Napoleonic Wars, WWII, etc.learning and more. He even has a rather humorous philosophy, some presented in Want a Peek? A historian finding humanity has not changed much through time. Some of these poems give you something to smile about, others are food for thought.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781499078909

Kari M. Knutsen

I’m Granny Karl and a Norwegian firmly believing that nothing is impossible. Not only am I having the time of my life writing, I am very proud to be a mother of two wonderful sons and a granny of eight darling grandchildren, even after being run over by a truck in Oslo at the age of five and later told I could never have any children. I did anyway, marrying and giving birth to my sons. Trust me, what is even more, a friendly smile is the best “word” there is and that is saying something coming from an author, a novelist, and a poet. Oh, yesss! A genuine, kind smile is understood by everyone and can even lighten up most anyone’s day no matter how stressed we are and wherever we are in the world. Having visited many countries and living in several, I know that is a fact. One more thing, not everyone can make you smile with tears in your eyes. No, but finding someone who can do that is a real treat. I suddenly did one day when least expected and began writing again. I’ve never been the same ever since. No, discovering happiness is within all of us. I believe we just have to really look for it. Some say “Old dogs sit barking.” That might be true or not. In any case, I write about both. This and that, of life, love, war, death, and more. Ooops! Some of my scribbles are to smile about. While reading you will smile at least once, but I suspect more, while you will find that other things I write about are to reflect upon. Should you wish to know more about me and my scribbles, take a look inside. Do have a lovely time reading and smiling! Enjoy!

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Kari M. Knutsen.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014918066

ISBN:      Hardcover            978-1-4990-7883-1

                Softcover            978-1-4990-7893-0

                eBook                   978-1-4990-7890-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

The poems and prose are works of fiction. The characters are invented by the author and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

Rev. date: 01/27/2015

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CONTENTS

Welcome! I’m Granny Kari!

Acknowledgements

A few reviews

GRANNY KARI POEMS

1.   Want A Peek…?

AGING… NOT DEAD

2.   Hello There!

3.   Wondering Why…?

4.   Cocktails

5.   Poetry Or… Tea…?

6.   Yes… Or No?

7.   Honesty

LOVE… ANYONE…?

8.   Mother

9.   The Old Couple

10.   Champagne And Caviar

11.   Musings Of Love…

MONEY AND MORE…

12.   Gold And….

13.   Why Not…?

LIFE AND DEATH

14.   Dead And Gone

15.   A Visitor…

16.   Goodbyes…

ADMIRATION

17.   A Hero

WILLOUGHBY

18.   Thank You

Just A Little Something…

Willoughby Philosophy

WORLD WAR II

19.   War And More…

20.   Marriage Proposal

21.   Missing You

MEDIEVAL TIMES 1096

22.   Lady Fair

ENGLAND 1798-1805

23.   Sweet Beautiful Angel

24.   An Inglorious Knight…?

25.   Graduation Day

LIEUTENANT WILLOUGHBY 1809-1810

26.   A Kiss

27.   Melvyn The Bush Kangaroo

28.   Will And Flamenco

29.   Big Brother…?

A ROYAL CAVALIER 1814

30.   To All Fallen Brothers

31.   Confessions Of Lust…

32.   Father

33.   Surprising Death…

34.   Loneliness

AMERICA 1819

35.   Redemption

A SECRET 1813-25

36.   Abby’s Book Keeping

Hello Again!

Entering the magical world of Granny Kari, you will love it as much as I do. It is a fantastic world. You will laugh at her humor, you might frown at her irony and you will read, again and again. Her successful poems create an emotional link between the words on her pages and the heart of the reader. The joyous sense of freedom, the camaraderie with Granny Kari that I feel emotionally connecting with her thoughts on the following pages can even be pure spring water shed on our often complicated lives. These are the great moments that poetry at its best can achieve with its reader. The poems in this book, chosen for their ability to express the funny and ironical as well as sadness are incredible. The joyous, the heartbreaking and the profound moments of humor are the pulse of life. The challenge of facing the world with her strength, creativity and convictions are written beautifully. I know you will enjoy her book as much as I did.

Ilana Haley

Life is often a bumpy ride. Smile when a door closes. Open a window and let your heart and soul fly. They will find a remedy. Granny Kari

C:\Users\Kari M. Knutsen\Desktop\2 GRANNY KARI 2010.jpg

Welcome! I’m Granny Kari!

I was born in Oslo, Norway on August 9. 1945. Certainly not a spring chicken anymore, I’m awfully happy to still be alive, a mother of 2 wonderful sons and even a granny of 8 amazing and beautiful grandchildren. Oh, yes!

Norway is now said to be the second most peaceful country in the world. Finland is number one and in Scandinavia as well, whilst Sweden, Denmark and Iceland are not far behind. Are you wondering what happened to the bloodthirsty Vikings? I bet you are. Clearly long since thinking violence does not make much sense, by now there even are good looking; really affable trolls as well as Vikings. Don’t tell anyone I told you, but sociable indeed and learning foreign languages, many of those seemed to be retired and are now living in Spain where it’s much sunnier and warmer. Ooops! I might join them one day. Oh, yes!

A peace loving soul, I arrived on a day a huge blast brought the end of war… at least for a while. World War II was at long last over after a huge second nuclear explosion not only spread out like an enormous mushroom of smoke and fire over the skies in East Asia. Over and done… ghastly destruction and the worst war ever finally ended on my birthday. As for me, the heartbreaking irony of beginning my life on such a day… which brought so much happiness as well as horrid suffering and death… there are no words… and that’s truly saying something for someone who claims to be a writer, a poet and now even an author. Oh, yes…

Now smiling with tears in my eyes… years later I was told by my brother I was not only awfully small, I looked like a peeled shrimp when newly born. Really! In other words, I could not have been much to look at. No, but I was indeed very lovingly received by my parents and even my 7 year old, clearly tolerant brother who was still lacking his new front teeth, but even so gave me a great big welcoming smile. Tiny and not having any teeth at all, I’m afraid I did not smile back. No, not only that, definitely feminine and being bald as well as utterly confused must have been more than enough not to smile. Smiles came later. That and irony. Oh, yessss! Humanity is never boring. No.

Indeed few of us, Norwegians are definitely not trolls hiding in our tall mountains. You see, even though a Lutheran Protestant… not even born on a Thursday, my very tall, good looking brother was named after the Nordic god Thor. Given the name bear as well… Bjørn in Norwegian, he was named after the Roman god of war, Mars too… born as he was in March. Perhaps confused by those two gods, he was never very religious. No. He became a medical doctor. Now gone for over 25 years, I shall always miss him. Suddenly losing and having to arrange funerals for everyone in my closest family, my father, mother and brother in less than 4 years was not easy and indeed heartbreaking goodbyes.

Not called Augusta… And in case you wonder, Kari means gust of wind or curly haired. As for me, my name cannot possibly be due to the latter. No. Kari is the Norwegian form of English Katherine or the short form of Karita… or Charity. The mysterious M…? Marie, which is a Norwegian form of Mary was generously added as well as I am named after my Mother, Granny, Great Granny… and so on and so forth and a tradition for centuries… Oh yes, we are rather conventional people. Last, but not least my Father’s surname Knutsen was added as well. Knutsen meaning son of… No, I’m not being vulgar… it just means son