Motherlode/Carolyne Van Der Meer

Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience.

From Google Images

The above titled by Carolyne Van Der Meer is described as a creative reinterpretation through short stories, poems, and essays of the experiences of her mother and other individuals who either spent their childhoods in Nazi-occupied Holland or were deeply affected by the wartime there,.Much more info about the book can be found here just type the details to the search box when it comes up. Carolyne has been widely published and some who are local may remember her when her poem "Atonement" was published in Boyne Berries 11. What was curious about that was that it had exactly the same first line as Michael Farry's "Road Trip" which was on the opposite page. And two very good poems they were! A curious thing about the period seems to be the absence of any really well known poems or poets that touch on the experience as opposed to those of the first world war and their more celebrated collections. Maybe there was an ideal they could hark back to. Maybe it's just me and I'm not familiar with it. Maybe these guys don't do poetry! The scene from "Cabaret" of the little boy on the box at the roadside cafe just about sums it up. The horror from the other side....I watched some of "Schindler's List" the other night and too few of him about. Nothing much was learned though, just turn on the news. Carolyne's book has a release date of January 2014. Check it out at WLU Press.