By Albergern there were scraps of woods;
Though still Dutch flat, the earth
Began to rise in sporadic swells:
(The "Achterhoek"--the back water / back woods
Of a prosperous, populated Nederland.)
And though still closely confined,
These were not the park-like groves
Of the well-groomed West:
Here remained a savage German edge--
Scarred remnants of that primeval wald
That even Rome could not embrase.

And though I knew not yet the tale,
The tangled green witnessed intuitively
The dreadful power of its awful truth.

02/20/2010

Author's Note: Memory of Twente

Posted on 02/21/2010
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