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.
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