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Holland
Here, where man has fought the sea and won, an airport stands at the bottom of a lake, a factory stands behind a lighthouse with the wreck of a ship in a farmer's field twenty kilometres from the present sea. Called the Ijslemeer it was the Zuider Zee; what was the sea is merely now a mere. Dykes defend this vast expanse of polderland, drained at vast expense, kept daily drained against the sea that would reclaim its own. -- Gerald England Gerald is
a British poet, living on the edge of the Pennines with
his lace-making wife, a son and a Manchester terrier. |