Poetry Through a Lifetime

About the Book

The Gedichte eines Lebens, Erster Teil (German Poetry Through a Lifetime, Part I), The Early Years’ edition has been written between 1953 and 1979, with a few additional poems in later years. The poems were put on paper in German, which is the time where the author had to readjust from a childhood in Africa (an English-speaking world) and school years in Europe (a German-speaking world) and North America, specifically in Canada (an English-speaking world), and to a marriage to a Canadian, Dr. Douglas George Pierce Junior Ludgate, in 1957. During that marriage, the author’s child, Douglas George Spencer Ludgate, called Spencer, was born in 1965. The poems in German ceased to come regularly once the author moved with son Spencer, to Tucson, Arizona, and her world became more English than any other language. Some of the poems have been published, which is indicated below the poems. Others reflect a certain incident in the life of the author, which is indicated as well. The follow-up version, Poetry Through a Lifetime, Part II, Later Years, written solely in English, will be published shortly.

About the Author

Brigitta Gisella Geltrich-Ludgate was born in the then British Colony of Kenya. Due to the outbreak of World War II, Brigitta and her older sister were forced with her mother to leave Kenya forever on the Durban Castle bound for Great Britain but the ship was captured by the Italians and brought to Genoa, Italy. Her father remained in Kenya and then in South Africa. From Italy Brigitta and her sister and mother were transported to Germany since the ancestors and parents of Brigitta’s mother were living in Germany. Brigitta’s life was a constant up and down, either hedging bombing of Berlin or fleeing from invading Russians. It did not become more stable until she moved with sister and mother to two small southern German towns, first to Bopfingen, then to Schorndorf. In the year 1948, Brigitta’s father came to Germany and the entire family moved to Canada, when Brigitta’s brother Klaus-Peter was one year old. It is in Canada where Brigitta took to writing poetry and has not stopped since. The poetry at first was in German and then turned to English. The poetry in the edition Gedichte eines Lebens, Erster Teil (German Poetry through a Lifetime, Part I), The Early Years, reflect the emotional adjustment Brigitta underwent as she acclimatized to a life first in Canada and then in the United States. Her homesickness to her adopted land, Germany, often becomes noticeable.