Arrival at Willow Point - Komið til Víðirness

When the Icelanders came to New Iceland
In eighteen hundred and seventy - five
To that stretch of sand in a foreign land,
To live, and to die, and to strive.

The North east gale blew fiercely
And as they rounded the point in that blow
The tub and the barges moved scarcely
In the waves and the driving snow.

The captain spotted a large white rock
Looming out of the gloom,
And decided right then to head for shore
And out of the impending doom.

For he had men, women and children,
Crouched in the barges back there
They where tired and sick and half frozen,
And some needed immediate care.

One woman on board was nearing her time,
Her child about to be born
The captain knew that both might die
If they didn't get out of the storm.

As the barges ground up on the sandy shore
There wasn't much shelter in sight,
In the lee of thin poplars an the big white rock,
The tents went up in the night.

On that stretch of sand in a foreign land
Jon Johanson  was born,
With the rising of the sun a new life had begun,
On that cold and frosty morn.

As the storm had cleared by morning
They gave thanks there on the sand,
Thanking God for bringing them safely,
To this new and different land.

They surveyed their surroundings
And liked what they could see,
The "Home of the Gods" someone uttered
We'll call our new home Gimli.

Don Martin
April 17. 1975