Barbara Lydecker Crane

Magnus, the Storm

is the apt name of his band.
A bear without a cub
or mate, this Icelandic man
sings and strums in the pub
he built inside his barn. The beer
on tap, he grins, “tunes my ear.”

Mucky boots, frayed coat and cap,
a bushy orange beard,
and wiry brows that overlap:
Magnus isn’t sheared.
It’s sheep that must be shorn
on this farm where he was born.

With lambs to birth, goats
to milk, and his Icelandic horses —
“Sixty,” Magnus proudly notes —
his aloneness reinforces
my amazement of his vim.
“You ever sleep?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “I only need
a couple hours a night. Best
that I keep up my speed,
all on my own. I’d test
a romance, though, if I could.”
He winks at me, as if I would.

Barbara Lydecker Crane has won the Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Crown Contest, the Helen Schaible Sonnet Contest, and was twice a Finalist for the Rattle Poetry Prize. She has published five collections, including You Will Remember Me (2023) and Art & Soul (2025).