"Original Title"

4/3/2014, KY USA

A piece of paper tells me that I own a square of dirt.
Deed in my name, with forest and field, horse and bridle.
Grandfather tilled this land, farmed till it hurt.
Its said with the crown of England rests the original title

Injected children sent to barbed wire enclosed blockpens.
Rightful owners in rooms on long halls, like nursing homes.
Still the paper says its mine, so I set my posts and fence.
Despite four strands, trails stay true where the deer roams.

Neglected elders left on fluorescent lit tiles of silence,
To the heirs and assigns passes what was once thine.
Yet still the babes are kept off their land, stolen by violence.
Blacktop and dynamite, smoke thick blocking sunshine.

And that recorded instrument still conveys my title, oh yes.
So still stolen easily, eminently, inevitably, never in my grasp.
And the soil awaits, despite deeded estate, best confess.
At last the land, the kids recover and discover, after my last gasp.

To the children's children shall always be the land's original title.

Reviews

[Frank]

I don't think the numbered lines do anything to enhance he poem, in fact they detract from your message.

Ownership of land is as old as the hills, why should one man about a lifetime and someone else move in and take it over. If a man builds a mill by a river why should other people eject him from his ownership of said mill, so ownership is logical and valid mark of a society. Title deeds and law are essential to a modern society, the other side of the coin is just anarchy tat could not support 300 million Americans.

The demise of the indigenous population and the demotion of them to a lower status is necessary from the conquerors point of view. No one likes change and change is painful to the vanquished. We could add cruel and deadly, but the alternative is to let three million people rule a huge continent that supports 300 million and could possible support one billion.

I take the sadness of your poem reflecting the point of view of those who lost their land and the beauty of the wilderness as it once was. The fact that we cannot go back does not alter the sadness felt by the original owners, by that I mean the ones who first occupied it from Mongolia with the dark skins and the asiatic features.

Your poem is the cry of all peoples vanquished and demoted, moved from their land. I think at this time of the Crimeans, the Jews of Poland and Russia, the Palestinians, the Welsh of Greater Britain, the Bretons in France, the Fins from their northern territories by Russia, and now the Ukrainians invaded by foreign invaders Russians calling themselves settlers.

Yes, a valid poem reflecting a deep seated sadness of the demise of a people and the loss of the land and rights to overwhelming events. There is not much to be done other than to alleviate their plight and honour the legal agreements made with the American government at that time. The lament should be heard and recorded, which is what you have done with this moving work.

[FarisGreybear]

thank for your feedback and I appreciate the kind words. I think you definetly get it, get at the message within. I'll remove the numberings, they are just part of my initial writing process. Wa-do! -feres greighbeare-

[FarisGreybear]

the main point is that we do not inherit lands form our ancestors, we borrow these land from our unborn great-grandchildren, and when we propose to assume that this land (which originally had millions-much more than three mil, prior to Colon/Columbus) can render such profits forseen or sustain a billion souls, we are liquidated resources reserved for our own offspring. therefore capitalism and consumption are indeed forms of infanticide, as the baby boomers wallow in the wealth of their struggling great grand-kids, who will, by and large, live deeper in debt, and not live nearly as long or as healthy. these trends can be reversed, but only when we begin to speak truth, rather than ignore and externalize our own invovlement, whether direct or indirect, in the destruction of our great grandkids property that we borrow from them, for with the babes lies the original title.

[FarisGreybear]

typos, ...lands FROM our anc......we are liquidaTING resources...........

[Frank]

I think that's a tall order, saying we rob our children of an inheritance. It may be we are wasteful of our resources, and I take your point we should honour future generations by preserving what we do have. Our children inherit a thousand generations of social activity with all the benefits and institution that improve their life. Al we can do is leave them what we have.

[FarisGreybear]

such exhilarating discussion. if for nothing else, i write to provoke thought, to initiate questions, to stoke a further investigation into the matter at hand, and so i do feel humbled and honored that this objective, at least with this work, has been met. In some cases, where entire fertile river bottoms, which used to produce incredible yields, have been paved over and entombed perpetually for walmart parking lot. yes, the technology of the rudolf diesel engine, and the roads they require may indeed be an improvement over horse and buggy, though some would argue this point, the fact remains that the several acres of blacktop, later to be conveyed to "younger owners" will never be able to support and feed and sustain life as it did before, when it accumulated rich river sediments and deposits, leading to incredible and bountiful harvests then, but nevermore. that is unless the walmart folds or moves three more miles out of town, as they often do, and the blacktop were to be ripped up. of course, this rarely, rarely ever happens, but perhaps one day the trend may change, and we may possibly seek more sustainable ways to develop and manage the resources we're "borrowing" from posterity. thanks again for this lovely and lively thing I call thinking and writing, thought versus the pen! :D

[FarisGreybear]

the question is: do we belong to the earth, or does the earth belong to us? it's a tricky thing claiming to own living things, whether four-legged, or two-legged, or those measured not in limbs but acres. I say this despite being a professional land surveyor and civil engineer. what improvement is really made by technological intervention, as it were, when sustainability is entirely disregarded simply for the sake of whimsical desire and avaricious plunder and profit. this in't a luddite's lament, but more a call to alarm, rusticus style, that original title derives from the creator and creation yet to be, not a few select creatures, momentarily hoarding wealth by whatever sophisticated and technological means, despite natural law, and the living environment, upon which all of our very lives depend, now, and in the future. Wa-do O-gi-na-li'i! (thank you my friend -Tsalagi Gawonihisdi to English language translation).

[Frank]

The only way forward for long term survival of the planet, in my opinion, is to limited families to one child. If we can limit the world population or reduce it to half then our children's children may have a future.

[FarisGreybear]

before the cherokee nation of oklahoma managed to wrestle control of the local indian hospitals from the IHS of the BIA under the DOI, our women were being sterilized without consent, in terrifying numbers. only now has the birth rate begun to recover. me thinks there is enough, if sharing takes place. civilization is characterized by hoarding, for what is money, a sharable or a tradable? who then decides who lives and who dies? thus far, ethnic cleansing of places with non-english names, like massachusetts, connecticutt, alabama, iowa, dakota, and kentucky, are all proven examples of reducing and controlling human population numbers, whether genocidal in nature or otherwise. it is the misallocation and mismanagement of our common natural resources that must be addressed, and sustainability, I think is a more practical much less moral approach than eugenics, imho.

[Frank]

Well, tribes like that must be allowed to grow back again. But I was thinking of a voluntary code to encourage conservation, less people less demand on resources