By Neither Hook nor Crook – Just Borrowed Internet Access

I was right, for the record: it was the internet at the library giving me fits. Everything went up fine at my brother’s house and you can read my German poem “Die Gedanken Sind Frei” right here:

https://thestoryfolder.com/poetry/die-gedanken-sind-frei/

Actually, this is the poem I wrote in the midst of one of my nursing courses, back when I was taking nursing courses. The poem is about daydreaming and the title is a joke. It’s a German folk song meaning “My Thoughts are Free,” first popularized back in 1842. The version I came into contact with was in a WWII movie called “Escape of the Birdmen” about a bunch of allied POWs being held in Colditz Castle. They’d sing it at the Kommandant, partly to make him mad but mostly to prove that there are ways you can’t hold a man. The movie was based on real events, though I doubt the song actually came into it.

Badly pronounced German can be heard and enjoyed here:

Translation from Wikipedia:

Thoughts are free, who can guess them?
They fly by like nocturnal shadows.
No man can know them, no hunter can shoot them
with powder and lead: Thoughts are free!