booksartyoume

'This Land is My Land' timothy r gates, 11/19/2007

This Land is My Land,
this Land is Your Land...
This Land is mine, or yours?
The land is it's own,
the water ways too,
from heavenly funnels
or tributaries fed from mother lakes,
fresh,
salt,
dead,
living,
giving life,
life's spring.
Do I own the Land?


'Stolen Land' timothy r gates, 11/20/2007

Stolen land,
stolen heritage,
borrowed from others' stories,
their land,
their children's children,
robbed of what could've been,
not unlike the children of those that stole first.

Not allowed to pray,
demanded to pay
the king,
the lord,
the task-maker,
only freedom is given.

Dignity
through colours,
not easily seen,
robbed of eyesight,
only thing known is your own,
the only dignity
you grasp.

Indigenousness peoples,
how far back do we go
before we arrive at those
first violated of personhood,
their land,
their story,
their dignity?

Indigenousness Land,
having her own genesis,
progenitor, protogenesis,
Brother Sun; Sister Moon,
our story,
our dignity,
our land.